Shared space is an urban design approach that minimises the segregation between modes of road user. This is done by removing features such as curbs, road surface markings, traffic signs, and traffic lights. Hans Monderman and others have suggested that, by creating a greater sense of uncertainty and making it unclear who has priority, drivers will reduce their speed, in turn reducing the dominance of vehicles, reducing road casualty rates, and improving safety for other road users.
A shared space scheme in New Road, Brighton, United Kingdom
Piazza Martiri della Libertà, a shared space-roundabout in Volterra, Italy
Many streets in Tokyo are shared, though not as a result of outright policy.
Auckland, New Zealand responded to disability groups' concerns by ensuring that a strip of "accessible zone" would be retained in the design. This strip is made off limits to vehicles by strategically placed street furniture, while the building edge and paving strips provide guidance to vision-impaired people.
Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – also known as robots in South Africa and Namibia – are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control the flow of traffic.
An LED 50-watt traffic light in Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Traffic lights can have several additional lights for filter turns or bus lanes.
Horizontally-mounted signals in Japan
A traffic signal in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with specially shaped lights to assist people with colour blindness