This thesis investigates five traffic planner´s experiences of planning for pedestrians and cyclists in complex urban settings. Three themes, or relations are investigated: priority or hierarchy; separation or conglomeration; and top-down design or bottom-desires. The research was conducted through qualitative interviews to get hold of traffic planner´s experiences and understandings of how to understand space. Firstly, the results show that the traffic planner´s experience that the car still is the norm in the traffic system, but that re-prioritization of space to make pedestrians and cyclists the norm is getting more widely accepted. Secondly, there is a spread understanding that separation of uses and functions are to prefer before creation of shared spaces. Shared spaces are seen to neglect accessibility and separated spaces with overlapping functions are seen to clarify uses. Thirdly, it is meant that it needs to be a mutual relationship between top-down design and bottom-up desires to create space that meet different needs; a purely top-down approach will miss preferable uses of an existing place, and a purely bottom-up approach is understood as a possible hindrance to get things done.