The European Union in the field of sustainable mobility is moving towards deregulation. It is in fact  looking closely into a radical change in the conception of urban mobility by fueling Shared Space experiments, that is the model proposed by Hans Monderman, a Dutch traffic engineer. This new concept of mobility has already been experienced by various European cities, which have adopted or are considering the adoption of the Shared Space.

The philosophy of shared space is  the abolition of a large number of road signs, traffic lights and even of pedestrian platforms. This way motorists and pedestrians will have to get accustomed to share the same space thus  forcing the motorists to pay more attention to cyclists and pedestrians.

“We are losing our ability to act responsibly towards society, because of too many rules, and therefore I believe that the solution for road traffic regulation is to teach that the danger is a good thing  since insecurity makes people more cautious. If you do not know exactly who has the right to move when you are in a road with neither signs nor pedestrians crossing,  you tend to look around at other road users. This automatically reduces speed and increases attention”.

Below are some examples of signs indicating the proximity of a shared space. On the right side the sign for the area 30 designed for the city of Arezzo.

URBAN SCENOGRAPHY & SUSTAINABILITY