Shared surface plan for Exhibition Road axed in favour of ‘safe space’

Pressure from disability campaigners and a critical road safety audit have prompted the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to drop plans for a fully shared surface on Exhibition Road. Andrew Forster explains the council’s novel plan to delineate pedestrian and vehicle space

Andrew Forster

31 July 2009

Exhibition Road – the original plans for a shared surface have been dropped in favour of a single surface with delineated zones

RBKC?plans to use corduroy tactile paving to delineate different zones of the street. The tactile paving would be laid in 800mm-wide strips, and possibly be ‘transparent’ or made of stainless steel.

The controversy over the re-design of Exhibition Road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea showed no sign of receding this week as an alliance of 28 disability groups said the council’s decision to backtrack on plans for a full shared surface did not go far enough.

The council’s new design for the street separates the space into a number of distinct ‘zones’ and proposes a tactile strip to alert the blind and partially sighted that they are...