Terms and definitions
The following terms have been taken from existing guidance and are defined at the outset of this report to ensure consistency of application and to reduce the risk of misinterpretation.
During the course of this research it was found that the same or similar terms were used by different parties with different interpretations, influenced by personal perspective / views, geographic differences, etc. The research team endeavoured to seek clarification, where possible, in order to consistently align the research input with the terminology adopted in this report.
Where the report has referred to external source material, the research team has endeavoured to ensure that the term is aligned to the definitions outlined below.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Accessibility / Access Audit | Undertaken as part of a Quality Audit and considers all forms of access in an area including emergency services and deliveries. This includes consideration of pedestrian access for people of all levels of mobility. |
| Carriageway | Part of a highway over which vehicles and pedestrians have a right of way. Commonly called the 'road'. |
| Cognitively impaired (person) | A person having one (or more) of a range of conditions which can impact thinking, communication, understanding and / or memory. Example conditions include dementia, Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementia, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease. |
| Cycle lane | Part of the carriageway reserved for pedal cycles only and shown by a solid or broken white line boundary road marking. |
| Cycle track | A route reserved for pedal cycle traffic. May be within or separate from the highway. |
| Deafblind (person) | A person having impairment of both hearing and vision, which can range from minor to severe impairment. |
| Department for Transport (DfT) | Department of the UK Government responsible for the English transport network and certain non-devolved transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. |
| Disabled People's Organisation (DPO) | A representative organisation or groups of disabled persons. |
| Disabled (person) | An individual with knowledge and personal experience of disability: a person with an impairment that influences their experience of using a given service or facility. |
| Disabled street user | A disabled person (or a person who directly supports a disabled person) with life experience of the subject area being discussed. |
| DPTAC | Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee. |
| Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) | A statutory process that involves assessing the impact of new or revised policies, practices or services against the requirements of the public sector equality duty. The duty requires all public authorities to have due regard for the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to foster good relations. This is to ensure compliance with the Equality Act 2010. |
| Footway | Pedestrian pavement that forms part of or runs directly alongside the highway carriageway and limits the width of the highway carriageway. Commonly called the 'pavement'. |
| Grey literature | Information produced on all levels of government, academia, business and industry in electronic and print formats not controlled by commercial publishing, i.e. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body. |
| Hearing impaired (person) | A person with partial or total deafness. |
| Inclusive Design | Collective term for design process that considers the needs of all people in order to deliver environments that can be accessed and used by all. |
| Inclusive Engagement | Engagement process that supports inclusion and access for all. |
| Inclusive Physical Design Measures | Street design features that supports inclusion and access for all. |
| Learning Disability | Learning disability that affects the way a person is able to learn and understand information and how they communicate. Examples of learning disabilities include Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Down's Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and Autism Spectrum Disorders. |
| Level Surface | A street surface with no level difference to segregate pedestrians from vehicular traffic. |
| MACS | Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland. |
| Non-disabled (person) | A person who does not have a cognitive or physical impairment, learning disability or a non-visible disability. |
| Pan-Disability Organisation | An organisation or group made up of disabled people regardless of the type of disability its members have. |
| Non-visible disability | An impairment or condition which may not be immediately apparent to others. Examples of non-visible disabilities include Asperger's, Autism, some mental health conditions, Diabetes, Epilepsy, Insomnia, Learning Difficulties, Rheumatoid Arthritis, some visual and / or auditory impairments. |
| Participant | Contributor to the research reported in this document from outside of the project team, including focus group participants and online participants. |
| People orientated street | Street design concept which aims to prioritise pedestrians over vehicles. Examples include pedestrianised streets and shared space streets with and without kerb demarcation. |
| Person with mental health condition | A person with a mental health impairment or illness such as Anxiety, Depression, phobias, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and / or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). |
| PSED | Public Sector Equality Duty under the 2010 Equality Act. |
| Public Realm (Scheme) | This is used by some participants to refer to 'Street Design' in this research. |
| Quality Audit | A Quality Audit is a defined process, independent of, but involving, the design team, that through planning, design, construction and management stages of a project, provides a check that high quality places are delivered and maintained by all relevant parties, for the benefit of all end users. |
| Road Network | Referred to as the 'highway network' (England, Wales and Northern Ireland). The road vehicle carriageway system. |
| Scottish Government (SG) | The devolved government of Scotland. |
| Segregated shared use path | A facility used by pedestrians and cyclists with some form of infrastructure or delineation in place designed to segregate these two modes. |
| Shared Space | A street or place designed to improve pedestrian movement and comfort by reducing the dominance of motor vehicles and enabling all users to share the space rather than follow the clearly defined rules implied by more conventional designs. |
| Street Design | Streetscape design and layout made up of footway, carriageway, landscaping and street features. Other features may include segregated cycle tracks, or tracks that are shared between cyclists and pedestrians without segregation. |
| Street User | Anyone that uses the street. A distinction can be made as to the type of user, i.e. pedestrian, cyclist, etc. |
| Transport Scotland (TS) | National transport agency of the Scottish Government, responsible for devolved transport matters in Scotland and accountable to the Scottish Ministers. |
| Unsegregated shared use path | A facility used by pedestrians and cyclists without any measure of segregation between modes. It is designed to enable pedestrians and cyclists to make use of the entire available width of the path. |
| Visually Impaired (person) | A person with partial vision loss or total inability to see. |
| Wheelchair user | An individual who uses a wheelchair. This term includes powered wheelchair users, manual wheelchair users and / or wheelchair users with 'personal assistant / carer' support. |
| Working Group | Group of key stakeholders set up by the Scottish Government to inform and engage with the research reported in this document. |
Specific note on the term 'shared space'
It should be acknowledged that the term 'shared space' was used by participants providing input to the research reported in this document and so was included in the Literature Review.
'Shared space' is a street design concept as defined above that is associated with mixing pedestrians and vehicles in the same public streetscape (or public realm). The result of this is that the term 'shared space' is open to being interpreted differently by different people.
This resulted in ambiguity when this term was under discussion and the term was sometimes used to describe individual design features rather than the design concept. During the research, clarification was sought where reference was made to an individual design feature and / or street design concept.
As far as practically possible, the research reported in this document uses the term 'shared space' as a street design concept.