Speaker: Keith Firth, Director, Colin Buchanan

The Central and Southern Scotland branch hosted an evening presentation by Keith Firth on Thursday 23rd September 2010.  Keith is the Director of Traffic Engineering for Colin Buchanan based in Bristol.  He has been researching at studying shared space which follows the principles of Manual for Streets and the Dutch traffic engineer Hans Monderman.  The UK DfT advice encourages designers to apply ‘naked street’ principles, yet with little guidance on traffic management implications.
















Keith interest lies in the traffic management impacts, risks and potential cost saving.  The majority of previous studies focussed on lightly traffic areas or there was not sufficient before and after data.  However anecdotal evidence of a few busy town centre junctions which appeared to work more efficiently when the signals failed, spurred UK trials into highly trafficked junctions with significant pedestrian activity with a focus on data collection before and after.



Such a contentious subject is obviously going to spark debate and receive resistance from professionals, local authorities, elected members and the public, however it is those debates which challenge our abilities as designers, preconceptions of the way things have always been and perceptions of risk.

Thank you to Transport Scotland for providing the venue, Keith for travelling up from Bristol and to all those who attended. If you would like a copy of Keith’s presentation which includes videos of before and after trials, please send your postal address to fiona.docherty@aeocm.com and you will receive on disk.