Shared neighbourhood street in Japan © www.courtyardhousing.org/background.html
SHARE - ALLOWING CHILDREN TO USE THE FULL WIDTH OF THE STREET Shared Streets, applied to a residential context, are called Woonerfs11 in the Netherlands, or Homezones12 in the UK. or also commonly named as ‘living streets,’ or ‘living yards.’ For residents of a woonerf, the public space in front of their homes is a place to play, socialize, and engage in the community. There are substantial safety improvements that have made them a success: In Dutch areas that have adopted the concept, traffic accidents dropped by 40% or more. In the shared street concept, cars, cyclists and pedestrians share the same street surface. In the shared street situation, where the zoning is unclear, drivers become more alert and drive slower. Traffic may be further prompted to slow down by strategically placing planters or bollards in the street so that cars have to drive around them and in so doing, slow down. Shared streets have no level differences, and one paving material is applied to the whole area. This makes shared streets easy to use by toddlers and their caregivers, as there are no level differences between the pavement and the road surfaces. The concept of Woonerf originated in Delft, NL as a result of citizens action in reclaiming their residential street (1960s) https://nacto.org/docs/usdg/woonerf_concept_collarte.pdf 12 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/38/section/268 11
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Keep the following in mind when designing shared streets: • Choose a material that is associated with pavements for the shared street. This encourages traffic to slow down and sends a clear signal that its a zone with pedestrian priority. • Use planters or bollards that cars have to drive around to slow them down further. • Keep the planters low, so that small children playing or walking behind the planters are visible to oncoming traffic. • Place clear signs at the beginning of the shared street to indicate to vehicles that they are entering a shared street zone. • Introduce a clear speed limit to the zone: 15kmph is a speed limit that is often. • Monitor use through local traffic police by strictly fining the offenders.