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February 25, 2005
Too risky?
It is said that fear of crime has a greater effect than crime itself. People prefer to drive their chidren to school - because the roads are full of people driving their children to school as its too risky to let them walk. You can't put seats in a bus shelter used by older people - without a risk that this attracts (the more undesirable) younger people to collect there.
CABE Space, established in 2003, is part of CABE, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, which champions the quality of our buildings and spaces. It has just published a new report What are we scared of? The value of risk in designing public space.
It includes stimulating articles from independnet thinkers, including John Adams who writes on 'streets and the culture of risk aversion'. He says
Fundamentally there is a difference in the way those designing and those using our streets perceive the road.
and goes on to analyse the the impact of risk averse design principles, and makes clear the difficulties of new approaches in the face of rising traffic levels.
To read the whole report, (in pdf), click here.
Posted by martin at February 25, 2005 11:14 AM
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