Saturday, 24 September 2016

what are the concerns on shared spaces?

Concerns over shared public spaces mainly include safety issues. With the removal of traditional signs, kerbs and traffic lights, motorists and pedestrians are essentially left to themselves to access the traffic situation before proceeding. The lack in traffic systems can be chaotic when there is a high volume of cars and pedestrians. 

In such cases, pedestrians can be vulnerable when crossing the roads as they might not be as visible to motorists at night when there are no traffic lights to facilitate. However, research has shown that motorists and pedestrians are more aware of traffic situations with the removal of traditional traffic signs - the absence of traffic lights have allowed motorists to rely on their instincts and awareness to navigate. 


Such shared spaces allows for flexibility in land use. However, these shared spaces also deal with drawbacks. Since pedestrians and motorists have to make eye contact to establish who has priority, this puts the blind and visually impaired at a sever disadvantage. Guide dog owners and long cane users are trained to use the kerb as a key navigation tool in the road environments. The removal of such a crucial structure creates a barrier, significantly hinder their mobility as well as increases their risk of getting into accidents. Furthermore, children have been taught to look at traffic light signals as well as zebra crossings when they cross the road. Their inexperience to such situations might also put them at great risk when traffic in such shared spaces is high.

 In terms of shared housing, there is concerns over safety. Airbnb started out by allowing people to rent rooms or entire homes from places that would have otherwise been left empty. Compared to prices in traditional hotels Since it is a relatively new economic structure, and an online one in facts, people have been relying heavily on past reviews left by previous occupants to determine whether the house lives up to their expectations. Many times when people book an entire apartment, home owners have to acknowledge that these occupants may not leave the home in the condition that it was in. The review system often proves to be rather inefficient - since both parties are able to leave reviews for each other, occupants would more likely leave positive reviews such that they would get positive reviews in return. Hence, occupants would praise home owners for their excellent service and helpfulness of the host rather than mentioning the leaking taps and dirty bathrooms.

In terms of legal issues, increasing cities are banning Airbnb. In Berlin, the new law, known as "Zweckentfremdungsverbot" is part of an attempt to safeguard affordable housing for the city's permanent residents. Authorities are increasing efforts to ban Airbnb and its rivals, those who rent out entire properties rather than single rooms. With housing shortages and increasing population in the city, it becomes an urgent need for authorities to step in to control the population of people who are profiting from purchasing more houses than they actually need. While Airbnb comments that home owners rent out their homes occasionally to pay their bills, this may not be representative of the whole population.

Having used Airbnb in search for affordable and unique deals, I have come across many hosts who have acquired several housing units specifically to rent them out on Airbnb and other short term rental sites. Especially in high density countries where housing is in shortage, potential home buyers may be faced with increasing cost of homes. The increased cost of housing can translate to greater unsatisfactory levels in society since the housing costs does not accurately reflect the increase in population of people. 

references:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141118035232-112545392-pros-and-cons-of-shared-space
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/road-safety/11072664/Britains-town-centre-roads-need-more-shared-spaces-expert-says.html
http://www.localgovsharingecon.com/uploads/2/1/3/3/21333498/localgovsharingecon_sharedspaces_oct2015.pdf
http://www.politics.co.uk/opinion-formers/guide-dogs-for-the-blind-association/shared-spaces-campaign
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/germany/berlin/articles/airbnb-listings-plummet-in-berlin-as-ban-comes-into-force/

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