Chislehurst Town Centre
Be Bold! The message left in most people's minds after Ben Hamilton-Baillie addressed a public meeting at The Bull's Head Hotel on 19 September.
Ben, who has advised on traffic schemes in a number of small towns in the UK and Europe asked what the function of a High Street was today. With out-of-town shopping centres such as Bluewater within easy reach, and with internet access for online shopping and communications, the original rationale for town centres must be re-examined. Increasingly it is becoming clear that if town centres are not made more attractive as desirable places for pedestrians, shoppers and families, they will decline. A key element of making them more attractive is making the streets more civilised.
For the last 50 years, policy in the UK has been to treat all streets as highways - where drivers have priority, and where pedestrians are separated from the traffic .While this is wholly appropriate on trunk roads and motorways, it has also been the norm in town centres, where it is not appropriate. As a result, a whole industry supporting traffic lights, barriers, and so forth has grown up to keep people and vehicles apart. This has led to an increasing sense of hostility between vehicles and pedestrians at places where they inevitably meet - in the town centre. This creates even more of an undesirable aspect in our town centres - traffic queues, pedestrians having to wait to cross the road, fumes, noise, and ironically, a less safe environment. And what is worse, traffic engineers who install these very expensive systems usually pay no respect to the particular street-scapes into which the systems are installed.
There is a large body of evidence to show that in town centres and other areas where pedestrians and traffic do need to co-exist, fewer controls lead to a more civilised interaction between them - streets are designed to enable better traffic flows, less waiting, if any at all, for pedestrians, and for an environment better integrated into the character of the town itself. And, importantly, studies show that some traffic controls actually increase the risk of accidents, by giving a false sense of safety.
As a result, increasing numbers of Local Authorities in the UK, including London and other larger towns and cities, are now dismantling traffic signals, barriers and regulated pedestrian crossing schemes. They are taking away the standardised road markings, and designing streets that meet the needs of the particular communities.
Is this what we want in Chislehurst?
The Chislehurst Society is working with the Chislehurst Town Centre Management Group to follow up on a number of the ideas set out by Ben Hamilton-Baillie. We will advise members of the outcome of these discussions.
In the meantime, you can access a number of short videos showing some of the ideas which Ben raised with us at his website.