Shared space pedestrian casualty

I’ve always said that to achieve Equality Streets (or Roads FiT for People), deregulation is not enough on its own. Nor, in my view, is streetscape redesign enough on its own. News of a serious pedestrian casualty at one of Coventry’s shared space junctions underlines the importance of re-education as part of a wider package of reforms. It’s appalling that a professional driver – a bus driver – failed to give way, but on my walkabout last month with Colin Knight (Coventry’s deputy traffic chief), I saw plenty of examples of aggressive bus driving. If bus drivers had help in unlearning the bad habits of a lifetime instilled by the anti-social, priority-driven rules of the road, they would see things differently and adjust their conduct accordingly. There must be less pressure on them to make up time lost at traffic lights, and with the freedom to go on opportunity instead of having to obey signals, there must be less need for speed …