ROADWITCH: COMMUNITY STREET DESIGN

ROADWITCH (AKA The Roadwitch Trial) began as a bunch of Halloween pranks to make a residential street temporarily safer for an army of trick-or-treaters. Then that rolled into a Residents' Association formed to create Britain's only street redesign created entirely by residents, in association and main-funded by Sustrans, with additional mentoring by Ben Hamilton-Baille, Britain's leading shared-space design expert (and fantastic departed friend).

Ted Dewan acted as the project's lead designer and pain-in-the-ass.

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As a result of all that, Ted is now a public speaker specialising in community involvement with roadspace redesign, and has been invited to speak at international urban design conferences.

BEECH CROFT ROAD

DIY STREET OXFORD

ENGLAND

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Working with Sustrans as a participating street in their D.I.Y. Streets pilot project, Ted spearheaded a residents' project to enable free-play for children on his street, changing the tone and atmosphere of the roadspace to feel more like a living room than a traffic corridor. The project has had worldwide influence and remains an inspiration for communities interested in reclaiming their residential streets on a tight budget.

This video tells the story in 23 minutes. The rest of the images in this series focus on of some of the pranks and the works done to create the DIY Street.

Images of the finished DIY Street, seasoned after a few years in situ.