Shared space Inspiration Tour

WE INSPIRE AND ENCOURAGE EXCHANGE SO YOU CAN INNOVATE

Shared Space Inspiration Tour Roads designed for people make a place come alive. Come learn the nuances of this innovative Dutch approach. Shared space is an innovative, and sometimes controversial, concept in road design and placemaking. The concept is being embraced all over the world – check out Exhibition Road in London – as an approach for creating a more human-scaled city. This tour takes you back to the birthplace of the design philosophy, the Dutch province of Fryslân. City planners, traffic engineers, development officials, city council members and others participants gain in-depth knowledge about the components of successful Shared Spaces, benefits to be gained and traps to be avoided.

The Tour On this tour, we will explore mid-sized and rural towns and villages where traffic routes and thoroughfares have been transformed into pleasant public spaces. Experience first-hand the way cars, cyclists, pedestrians, residents and shop owners can coexist in high quality road layouts and public spaces emphasising local character. This exiting and inspiring three day tour showcases a diverse array of Shared Spaces. We will focus on the following aspects: • Infrastructure: In the mid-nineties, traffic safety engineer Hans Monderman concluded that infrastructural measures, such as speed bumps, signs and traffic lights were not actually making roads safer. He argued for fewer traffic control devices and laws and more collective responsibility as the key to increasing road safety and quality of life in urban areas. New design forms were introduced, emphasising quality and local character, essentially placemaking through a new democratic form of road organization. • Design Process: In the typical design process, traffic engineers design according to guidelines and deliver a final plan. The Shared Space concept turns this around and takes advantage of feedback from the increasingly well-informed public. The design process is organised around the principle “with people, for the people.” This collaborative approach ensures strong support and understanding of a new and innovative concept. • The good and the bad: In the media, Shared Space is depicted simplistically as the approach without sidewalks. Not surprisingly, this leads to controversy, as people feel vulnerable and alone. Advocates for the disabled and visually impaired often have strong objectives to Shared Space.

We will focus on the principle behind the Shared Space concept, and explain how it can actually be an improvement for any street, if the necessary requisites are taken into account.

Activities This is not a “hop-on, hop-off” tour, dropping you from a bus onto the street for a few quick pictures. Instead, we dare you to step outside and interact with Shared Space in order to gain true understanding of the concept. We will take a cycle tour through villages without traffic signs. The tour will also provide an opportunity to experiment with these design principles in a group session where we work on a case study brought from your own situation. The teachers and professors from the Knowledge Centre Shared Space, part of the NHL (Northern University Leeuwarden) will assist in the coaching of this session.

Our three-day tour includes the following types of activities. •

Presentations

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Observational tours

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Site visits

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Cycle tour

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Experiments on the streets

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Group case study activity and

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Discussion

We will meet with city employees who have experience with the concept and with experts from the Knowledge Centre Shared Space.

Day 1

Day 2

Naarden and Sneek

Wolvega, Weststellingwerf and Ooststellingwerf

We will visit the City of Naarden, just below Amsterdam. Naarden is a medieval walled city, included on the UNESCO Cultural Heritage list. Preserved but vibrant inner-city of Naarden. After picking you up at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport, we start heading south of Amsterdam to Naarden. In this town, the old centre is carefully preserved, but the town is not a museum, rather it is home to many residents. It continues to attract visitors with its historic charm, shops and restaurants. We will learn how the town council balances preservation and progress. The inner city streets of Naarden have recently been transformed into Shared Space streets, strengthening this balance between traffic and urban quality. Walking the town centre of Sneek. After Naarden, we will drive to the North to the City of Sneek in the province of Fryslân. New neighbourhoods encircle this city’s historic town centre. The old through roads have been diverted to a ring road, effectively transforming the old route through the town centre into attractive streets in the model of Shared Space. The designer of some of the recently reconstructed routes will show us around and explain how the interaction with the stakeholders took place.

From thoroughfare to Shared Space in Wolvega. In the morning of the second day, we will go to the village of Wolvega. The village of Wolvega grew due to its position along the main corridor to the northeast. But this route also cut the village in half. Today, the highway bypasses the village, but the wide spaces left by the former road remain within its centre. Recently, the village adopted the concept of an inner ring, which connects neighbourhood roads. Parking is located along this ring, which has the effect of calming traffic in the centre. Last year, the superfluous road space was redesigned and the village centre is whole again. In the redesign, Shared Space was the leading concept. We will explore the infrastructural situation and will hear about the design process and the way they interacted with stakeholders. Cycling through the countryside. After Wolvega, we will get on our bikes and cycle around the municipalities of Weststellingwerf and Ooststellingwerf. This lesspopulated area consists mainly of long rural roads and an occasional village. We will experience the interaction between cars and bicycles in the countryside. In the villages, the roads dissolve into public space. The village of Makkinga has no traffic signs anymore. The village of Oosterwolde turned two major intersections into a large village square. We will visit these locations, and hear about how these recent developments came about, including who was involved, how the changes were implemented and how they function today. The cycle tour is about 35 km and will take approximately 3 hours. This length can be shortened, if desired.

Day 3 Zwolle Cycle space in Zwolle. The final day starts with a walking tour in Zwolle, the Dutch Bicycle Capital 2014, which features a traffic-calmed centre, beautifully restored areas and a constant struggle with the volume of cars. We will hear about the policies strengthening the position of pedestrians and cyclists, and the way the car takes on a subordinate role in the city centre. We will also visit the excellent cycle traffic routes to the suburbs, which have helped Zwolle reach a cycling mode share of 50 percent for daily trips. Drop of in the city centre of Amsterdam. Finally, we drive back to Amsterdam. We can drop you of in the centre of the city for some free time. If needed, we can also drive you back to Schiphol Airport. The airport can also be reached by an easy 15 minutes train ride.

Your guides Dick van Veen Dick is a traffic engineer and city planner who has worked on many Shared Space design projects in the past 10 years. He is also an enthusiastic coach and trainer who has given many workshops and trainings on this design philosophy to city employees, consultants and universities. Working in both the Netherlands and abroad, Dick has good understanding of what makes the Dutch road system function so well and how to translate these principles to a foreign situation. Lars Matthijssen Lars is a traffic engineer with a passion for coherent and integral road designs. Having worked at a number of municipalities, Lars combines expertise in traffic engineering with in-depth knowledge about the day-today problems city employees face. He is expert at handling every step of the design process from blank tracing paper down to the final street paver.

Cost and practicalities

About us

For early birds, the cost of this three-day, prearranged study tour is € 1,325 per person. After August 31, the price is € 1,475.

Mobycon

Price includes: • Accommodation: hotel in Sneek October 15 and hotel in Zwolle October 16 • Meals: Breakfast & lunch October 16 and 17 and dinner October 15 and 16 • Transportation costs: for travel during tour, including train, bike rental, etc. NOT INCLUDED is travel to tour start in Amsterdam October 15 and from tour end in Amsterdam October 17.

We are an independent research and consulting company with more than 25 years of experience working in The Netherlands. We provide services and products related to managing traffic, all modes of transportation and mobility. By integrating transportation systems, we are working to create healthy and livable communities prepared for the future. Visit our website for more information.

Our vision We wish to facilitate sustainable means of transportation worldwide as a modern, efficient and convenient way to move around. As the world’s number one cycling country and the world’s third safest country in terms of traffic safety, we take pride in sharing cycling expertise and innovations.

Training style A study tour is an opportunity to see people-friendly spaces in action. All participants can learn in their own manner. Our study tour guides facilitate interaction between the participants, the speakers and the environment.

Contact Please come prepared with clothing suitable for walking and casual cycling (no lycra necessary!). Registration

Mobycon P.O. Box 2873 2601 CW Delft The Netherlands Phone: +31 15 214 78 99 E-mail : studytours@mobycon.com

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