Things You Don’t See From A Car: The Bicycle Drummer in Brighton's New Road

Brighton Festival 2015 has come and gone, and a good one it was too. It’s not just at Festival time that you see things like this in Brighton’s New Road - a shared space packed with pedestrians, dawdlers, drinkers, buskers and street artists - not a good place for four wheelers, who, apart from taxis, tend to give it a miss. But for those of us who enjoy putting New Road to its intended use, there’s normally plenty to be seen. 

Including, last week, the group Puncture Kit, featuring The Bicycle Drummer (David Osborne). Love that bike-based drum kit. Why bother with a beat up Transit van when you can put the beats on two wheels?

 

Brighton’s Valley Gardens scheme moves a step closer

It has been announced that recently allocated Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) money will enable further development work to be carried out on Brighton’s Valley Gardens project, enabling the full scheme to be planned along the A23 between St Peter’s Church and the Aquarium (Brighton Pier) roundabout. The design of the scheme means that most through traffic will move to the east side of the gardens with buses only on the west side by the Pavilion. This should make it easier for people to access the underused green spaces in between, creating a linear park effect and a more attractive entrance to the city.
Outside Brighton University: LH picture as is; RH picture, as planned



Spot the difference (below): LH picture shows Pavilion Gardens (off the shared space of New Road). RH picture shows Valley Gardens (encircled by traffic)



The very comprehensive and informative draft Business Case for the scheme, which is included in the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership’s Strategic Economic Plan, and from which these photos were taken, shows the proposed layout design and associated movements. Bring it on!

Now That’s What I Call Shared Space

Following yesterday’s blog about re-imagining urban spaces, these photos, taken in Brighton’s New Road, feature Rockin’ Mark Vis and his mobile (upright) pub piano. And a taxi. Plus some pedestrians. And some nice paving…Click here to listen to Mark on the old Joanna.

Brighton Festival Hits the Streets

Lamp-posts stitched into corsets or sporting woolly sleeves, Vanessa Redgrave emblazoned on street utility boxes, children parading through the streets and New Road taken over by even more of the weird and wonderful – it can only mean one thing: Brighton Festival is here.
The UK’s second biggest arts festival after Edinburgh got under way on a wet and windy weekend on what should have been the sunny south coast.  Here’s a peep.

Behavioural Economics Meets The Street?

Behavioural economics is about how our brains process information and respond to the cues that surround us - frequently in ways that differ from what economists would deem “rational.” This came to mind at a workshop I attended in Brighton last week. Not a workshop about economics, but a workshop about streets and the psychology of streets.  The workshop, based on the Department for Transport’s Manual for Streets, was run by an organisation called Places Matter. The workshop was designed to give participants an overview of Manual for Streets, outlining the principles of successful street design. Naturally, there was a visit to Brighton’s “trophy” street scheme, the award winning New Road. But we also went up to Brighton Station, a thorny challenge, where scoping out a new scheme is soon to be subject to public consultation. Thinking about streets is now moving away from formal modes of control beloved by traffic engineers to thinking about what people actually do in streets: getting the “right” kind of behaviour on streets needs a more subtle approach than  just rules and regulations. The keynote presentation at the workshop was from Martin Stockley, a designer/engineer/practitioner and a thinker about streets.
Some of Martin’s key themes:

• There is no single answer to how a street should be.

• Conflicts are inevitable but probably can’t be solved: we should aim to let people interact and resolve (not solve) conflicts.

• Manual for Streets is about controlling less, allowing more.

• Civility is the name of the game.

• The focus should be on “allowing regulations” to encourage “normal” behaviour.

• It’s not normal to have to wait (eg to cross a road)

• Local authorities are confusing “risk aversiveness” with “liability aversiveness.”

• We need to aim for acceptable safety, not absolute safety.

• Barriers on streets are perceived to increase safety, whilst actually increasing danger.

• Vehicle speeds need to be lower.

• Streets should be where people can act normally, not be regulated and controlled.

• The streets are ours.

More of Martin’s thoughts on streets in this video. Naturally, filmed on the street.