The regeneration of Poynton Town Centre and its high street, Park Lane, involved a bold approach to the busy traffic intersection in Fountain Place. Martin Cassini’s short film documents the background to the project, and the dramatic changes in the fortunes of Poynton, and explores the implications for other towns and cities struggling to cope with the impact of traffic.
For more on the project behind this film contact :
Ben Hamilton-Baillie
Hamilton-Baillie Associates Ltd
32, Kingsdown Parade
Bristol BS6 5UF UK
Tel: 0117 942 7337
Mobile: 07968 774 280
ben@hamilton-baillie.co.uk
http://www.hamilton-baillie.co.uk/
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World Streets on Sharing and Equity
The core value, the constant target in all we do and support at World Streets from the beginning is the concept of equity. Which in a world of seven billion hungry people boils down to the importance of our all finding ways to get a lot better at sharing: in our case, sharing transport, sharing streets, sharing public spaces. It is in this context that we are pleased to share with you this video.
Here are a few related references from our work that may be useful if you wish to pursue this further:
From World Streets:
- On Share/Transport: https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/?cat=48609120
- On Shared Space – https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/category/shared-space/
- On Equity as an organizing principle – https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/category/equity/
Working sites on Facebook:
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About the editor:
Eric Britton
13, rue Pasteur. Courbevoie 92400 France
Bio: Founding editor of World Streets (1988), Eric Britton is an American political scientist, teacher, occasional consultant, and sustainability activist who has observed, learned, taught and worked on missions and advisory assignments on all continents. In the autumn of 2019, he committed his remaining life work to the challenges of aggressively countering climate change and specifically greenhouse gas emissions emanating from the mobility sector. He is not worried about running out of work. Further background and updates: @ericbritton | http://bit.ly/2Ti8LsX | #fekbritton | https://twitter.com/ericbritton | and | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbritton/ Contact: climate@newmobility.org) | +336 508 80787 (Also WhatApp) | Skype: newmobility.)
WORLD STREETS __ A New Mobility Action Plan for 2022 
Interesting. However as a local resident I can report that the whole thing has been a disaster. Traffic is MUCH worse, level of accidents increased and now the gutters are collapsing due to HGV’s. Nice one!
I find your comments interesting. From my research, I have only found evidence to suggest that Poynton has, in large part at least, been a success. I stumbled upon this YouTube clip some months ago and was thoroughly impressed by it too, so it’s nice to see it still making the rounds. No intersection is ever going to be 100% perfect and address all user needs, but I don’t think the innovation and bravery of this Council and those who worked on the project can be underrated. Here are some other links that you might like to view: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/04/lots-cars-and-trucks-no-traffic-signs-or-lights-chaos-or-calm/5152/
http://towns.org.uk/files/TTI-Poynton-Presentation-11th-June-13.pdf – this one in particular is of note given that it is by the Council themselves, reviewing the project.
Thank you very much for that their useful background notes and necessary qualification on the Poynton initiative.
As another local resident, who mostly uses this intersection as a pedestrian (but also as a motorist occasionally), I would have to disagree that it has been a disaster. It is a *lot* easier to cross the road, the traffic is slower and no heavier than before, it is just better balanced now; there is more delay on London Road, but a lot less on Chester Road, which used to have 2 mile tailbacks on the old design. The difference is that the traffic keeps moving (slowly) now and so there is less pollution and noise from it. It also looks a lot nicer than the sea of tarmac, cramped pavements, and ugly lights that were there before! It is easier for people in wheelchairs or with pushchairs too.
The only downsides compared to the previous layout are implementation issues rather than design faults, in my opinion. The paving is a bit slippery for cyclists, there are probably not enough cues for visually impaired people (I’m not an expert on that though!) and as you say, it seems that the drains were not designed to take the weight of lorries which seems a massive oversight. So it’s not perfect, but so much better than before.