I don’t disagree with anything you say — proper transport infrastructure in Cheshire East, that…

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I don’t disagree with anything you say — proper transport infrastructure in Cheshire East, that gives genuine alternatives to cars, would be great for all our traffic problems in Poynton. The problem is that, just like everywhere outside the big cities, there is no money for such things. In fact we recently lost about half of our already poor bus services. Even Greater Manchester’s proposed and yet-to-be-funded £1.5 billion cycling and walking scheme is only designed to make it practical for children over 11 to cycle to school. In the prevalent political climate of the last 40 years Cheshire East would never see that kind of investment. You also have the engineering problem of finding the physical space for a proper segregated cycle lane — the east-west routes in particular would struggle to accommodate them, Chester Road’s current ‘advisory’ lanes outside Shared Space are only 2 feet wide and realistically they can’t be any wider; the pavements are not much better — 3–5 feet wide at best. Park Lane is even narrower.

If we had waited and did nothing until the best solution was funded then probably nothing would have happened at all. Certainly not in my lifetime. So pragmatism and local priorities have to rule. If there is one philosophy about Shared Space, at least in Poynton, it seems to be evolution and learning from problems, which I think you’ll agree is pretty novel for a local council. For instance since I wrote this article (which was about a year before I published it on Medium) the town council have created some strategically located flower beds and cycle stands where pavement parking was the worst. The few parking bays there are in the scheme have become short-term only or disabled only to stop people parking there all day. Bus stop locations have been changed. Signs giving non-local drivers a better idea have been added at the entrance to the area. Through HGVs are going to be banned within a couple of years, assuming the bypass ever gets finished. An alternative route through Poynton (for the south to east traffic) has been improved in an attempt to reduce traffic.

The 2016 Neighbourhood Plan has ambitions to extend Shared Space significantly, almost tripling the amount of road covered, but they also want to add more cycle routes into the town centre too, so I can only imagine this means either cycle lanes or allowing some of the ‘comfort space’ of the pavement to be shared with cyclists. They also are planning more secure cycle parking and better cycling links to the main railway station from there (not entirely sure how they plan on doing the latter). They also want better disability access, which can only mean for the visually impaired, as one of the main priorities in the original design was to improve access for the elderly, mobility scooters, walkers etc and it works well for them. Bear in mind that there are ‘proper’ pedestrian crossings and refuges in Poynton as well — although admittedly you have to walk 50 yards or so outside the Shared Space in order to use them.

Shared Space is fundamentally different from how transport has been designed up until now in this country. It takes a bit of getting used to but it does work. People do end up driving more slowly and allowing people to cross — and actually people with a walking stick or white stick are treated very respectfully. The difference in motorists’ attitude to cyclists and pedestrians outside the Shared Space is remarkable — it is much more pleasant to cycle in the area than on a conventional road with token cycle facilities. It is almost as though people are actually thinking about others. :-) The ‘courtesy crossings’ are treated like zebra crossings, and work very well. It is much like walking or cycling in a supermarket carpark really, just without all the clutter and parked cars!