Shared streets:
A driver free-for-all

by Stewart McCoy

Driving is easy, right? After your driver’s ed test, it’s pretty much mindless. You get in your car, stay inside the lane markers on the road, and observe traffic signals. Follow these rules, and getting from point A to B is only a matter of how to get there faster.

But what if the community you live in removes all the road markings and traffic signals? That’s exactly what the town of Bohmte, Germany, began doing in the fall of 2007.

They’ve joined an increasing number of European and Asian communities adopting this uncommon traffic regulation (or unregulation) strategy. The idea is to force people to rely on common sense and courtesy instead, according to a story in the Washington Post.

Inventing the centerline

In the early years of the 20th century, few people owned cars. Those who did often drove in the middle of roads to avoid ditches and trees. Unfortunately, as cars became more common, so did crashes.

In 1911, Edward N. Hines developed centerlines for highways. (He was also responsible 2 years earlier for the first full mile of concrete road.)

Centerlines were a simple approach to dividing lanes of opposing traffic and preventing head-on collisions. And yet in recent years, communities around the world are increasingly adopting a “shared street” approach to traffic design, and doing away with road markings and traffic signals altogether.

Designing "shared streets"

In 2003, a major intersection in a city in the Netherlands was converted to a shared street design. At the time, the intersection carried almost 20,000 cars per day.

Previously the intersection was signal-controlled. Now, the intersection is brick-covered and the sidewalk merges with the roadway. At the center is a roundabout, and the four corners of the intersection have fountains that are lit at night.

Since the conversion, accident rates have fallen 20% and travel time has decreased dramatically, according to Koop Kerkstra, city engineer, as reported in an article by Roads & Bridges.

The end of the line for road markings?

What does this mean for you? Are city engineers in your neighborhood going to get rid of road markings and traffic signals and trust the public to navigate roads in a chaotic fashion?

Not anytime soon, according to Reg Souleyrette, Associate Director for Transportation Planning and Information Systems at Iowa State University's Institute for Transportation.

"Shared streets might work as a boutique solution," Souleyrette says. "They can probably work in liberal countries like Holland where people are used to pedestrian travel and bicycles. But you'll never see them here [in the United States]."

Souleyrette cited India as an example of shared streets, where every mode of transportation vies for the right of way.

"India has more traffic fatalities annually than we do for far fewer miles traveled," he says.

"Then there's the issue of legal liability and tort issues," Souleyrette says. "If someone crosses the street and gets hit, they're going to sue because there was no sign there."

So expect to continue driving inside the lines and observing traffic signals. In the mean time, read the sidebar to learn more about how traffic engineers are developing improved techniques for safer road markings.