extended essay: home zones in the u.k

HOMEZONES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

EXTENDED ESSAY SEMINAR SIMON LAPINSKIRef: Images IHIE Homezone design guideline, www.homezonechallenge

CONTENTS

ELEMENTS

1

1. Contents. 2. Forward. 3. Indroduction. 4. - What is a Home zone?

5. History and development. 6-8. - The History of Home zones. 9-14. - Development of home zones in the U.K. 15. Design considerations. 16. - Gateways. 17. - Movement. 18. - Parking and Lighting. 19. - Facilitating play and Blind and disabled.

20-21. Implementation.

ELEMENTS

22. Appraisal of completed projects. 23. - Reduced vehicle speeds and Reduced/perceived crime. 24. - Safer play for children. 25. - Improvement in environmental quality. 26. - Enhanced community cohesion.

27. The future. 27. - Funding. 28. - Strategy. 29. - Promotion. 30. - New developments and the planning system. 31. Conclusion.

32. Bibliography.

33-34. Appendix - Pilot schemes. - Challenge schemes.

FORWARD 2

During our three years of studying Landscape Architecture we have been exposed to many topics to aid our progression within the field. Our role is attempting to create spaces to a brief, which requires satisfy-ing a client or more generally a group of people.

Growing up in central London as a child on a council estate, we took it for granted to have what seemed hundreds of friends, playing various games in the yard all day unhindered, except for the odd shout from the old lady upstairs.

It appears in the last 30 years that those leagues of children that once played outdoors have gradually disappeared. This was never more evident than on our current project involving the Edgar Road Community Centre in a Hanworth housing estate in London.

Our aim was to stimulate the community into rediscovering and enjoying the mass of open space that surrounded them. I’m not naive enough to believe that we hold all the solutions, but the concept of Home zones and the benefits it purports to provide residents in reclaiming their streets, providing safer environments for children to play and helping to restore a vital sense of community was the stimulus in the selection of study for this extended essay.

Through the essay will be discussed the problems currently existing in most urban residential areas, the evolution of the home zone principle, its claims, application and evaluation of projects to assess if it is part of a solution to enhance the well being, quality of life and community spirit within urban residential environments.

Ref: Photograph and visualisation authors own work.

Visualisation of Homezone proposal for Edgar Road Community Centre.

CommunityCentre.

Edgar Road Community Centre.

INTRODUCTION 3

The expansion of traffic volumes, a system of streets established primarily during the Victorian age and shortsighted traffic engineering has created residential environments that are dominated by the car.

The sheer volume of traffic flow and numbers of parked cars has led people to become estranged from their own communities.

Home zones (HZ) are on attempt to reclaim the streets from poor post war planning, which focused on the priority of the car. This solitarypursuit structured streets to meet specific traffic flows, speed requirements and a standardisation of street setting that ultimately led to the segregation of cars and people.

Ref: Cartoon above, reclaiming city streets for people, European commission.

INTRODUCTION 4

What is a home zone?

A HZ is focused on reducing speed limits of motorised vehicles to at least 20mph or below, (preferably to walking pace) within residential areas to generate equality and a safer environment for its inhabitants to enjoy other activities. HZ’s are not only con-cerned with reducing car dominance, but also extending the social domain into the street.

This expansion of the social domain is aimed at improving the quality of life to its residents, instead of being just a thoroughfare for vehicular traffic, reversing the previous relationship with the car, which now becomes a guest in the street.

This is achieved by a distinct approach to street design; highway engineering and landscaping combine to control how cars negotiate the new environment without restricting the number of vehicular movements.

HZ’s are residential areas where the street is designed to change the way it is used to improve the quality of life of residents so that they can talk to their neighbours, play, walk and cycle safely in the streets. The aim is to change the balance between car dominance and the use of the streets for living

IHIE (Institute of Highway Incorporated Engineers), June 2002.

Image of entance at Cavendish Rd, Kingston-Uopn-Thames HZ.

View down Hastings Rd, West Ealing of the Five Roads HZ.

Ref: Images taken by author.

INTRODUCTION 5

Key benefits of Home zones include:

Providing children with a safe environment in which to play • within the close vicinity of their homes.

Increasing the social domain by reclaiming residential streets • into valued public spaces and rediscovering a sense of community.

Reducing crime, a consequence of more residents and time • spent within their streets is the increase in natural surveillance, which acts as a deterrent to potential crimes. Any reduction in crime or the perceived threat of crime will encourage furtherresidents to find enjoyment in their streets, thus establishing a virtuous circle that aids the whole community.

Reducing the dominance of the car and promoting • sustainable modes of transport such as walking, cycling and public transport. This way the community is also contributing to producing a cleaner environment through the reduction in congestion, noise pollution and carbon emissions through lower car usage.

Lowering social segregation of older and less able members • of the community by facilitating greater social interaction.

Improving the general well being of residents and increasing • the quality of their lives.

Images of Milford St, Southville HZ, Bristol Before and after the application of the concept.

Ref: Bristol University, Southville HZ: An independent survey.

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 6

History of Home zones.

The theoretical beginnings of HZ’s can be traced back to the report Traffic in Towns (1963) written by Colin Buch-anan. The report was a study of traffic in urban areas within the U.K. In 1959 the Ministry of Transport of the United Kingdom (U.K) hired Buchanan to investigate the issue of improving urban transport, by reducing congestion and coming to terms with the car.

An Architect and Engineer, he developed an innovative idea by distinguishing the conflict between providing for easy traffic flow and the breakdown of the residential and architectural fabric of our streets. Buchanan and his team developed a technique for evaluating and restructuring urban traffic systems into specific zones, called Environmental areas.

These were different to conventional streets, as the volume of traffic that flowed through them would depend on their function. Streets would not only be classified by the volume of traffic that they could accommodate, but also by environmental aspects such as noise, pollution, social activity, pedestrianisation and visual aesthetics.

These environmental elements would be used in setting the standards and limitations, creating some Environmental areas where pedestrians and vehicles were segregated and others, which permitted the safe mix of both pedestrians and motorists in the street.

Initially the ideas of ‘traffic integration’ and ‘traffic calming’ in the environmental zones were not well received by the government as they ran counter to existing polices of promoting economic development through road construction and railway improvements.

The report re-surfaced in the late 1970’s when the government combined the departments of the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Housing and Local Government into the new Department of the Environment. This provided the first opportunity to address both land and transportation issues as a single entity, however changes were still slow to appear.


It was mainland Europe who went on to adopt the theories devised from Buchanan’s report. Germany, Denmark, Sweden and in particular Holland embraced many of the ideas, referring to Buchanan as ‘the father of traffic calming’.In Holland the Traffic for towns report inspired Nick De Boer, Professor of Urban Planning at Deflt University of technology and the University of Emmen.

Attempting to bridge the contradiction of streets as places of children’s play alongside the usage of cars, he developed the notion of Buchanan’s concept of co-existence as a possible solution. Buchanan designed streets that gave motorists the impression that they were entering a garden setting; forcing drivers to consider other road users, where design of the physical space promoted equality amongst all users rather than just the flow of traffic. De Boerrenamed the street a Woonerf, or “residential yard”.

Plan view of the shared space of a Woonerf, pedestrians and vehicles share the same space, which is designed to slow traffic and to support play and social activities.

1. Clear marked entry. 2. Sitting area/bench. 3. Bend in driving lane. 4. Parking space. 5. Planters and trees.

0m 20m Scale

2

1 3 4

5

Ref: Sketch authors own, applied from Streets and the shaping of towns and cities, M.Southworth & E. Ben-joseph


The Delft scheme proved a great success and with the development of guidelines by the Ministry of Transport and Public Works in the form of a set of minimum design standards and traffic regulations for the Woonerf, legislation by the Dutch government in 1976 resulted in the idea spreading throughout the Netherlands.

These guidelines were subsequently adopted and legalised in the creation of shared street spaces in Germany of the same year, Sweden and Denmark 1977, France 1979 and Switzerland in 1982. All of these countries used different terminology to describe their own particular form of Woonerf, in Germany its called Verkehrsberuhigung, Ggade in Denmark and of course a HZ in the U.K.

Woonerf streetscapes below.

Ref from left: Woonerf: A Dutch residential landscape, Colin Hand. 2 x images Reconciling people, places & transport, Ben Hamilton-Baillie.

At this time in 1969 the Municipality of Delft had been considering redesigning and improving road surfaces in inner city locations and selected De Boers ideas for a collection of poorer areas where more child play areas were needed, but none existed. With the participation of local residents, the design incorporated pave-ments and road surfaces into one shared space, creating the impression of a yard. Trees, planting and street furniture such as benches further enhanced the space.

Delft, Holland. Rijswijk, Holland. Copenhagen, Denmark.


Development of Home zones in the U.K.

Innovative schemes existed in the U.K which adopted the principles of the shared space during the 1970’s such as Worthington St in Leicester funded by an urban renewal programme for inner city sites and Brow in Runcorn, Cheshire where grant monies from Cheshire Design Aid installed a shared surface scheme to replicate the aesthetic of a country lane. However from these initial pioneering projects, many local authorities were unwilling to proceed with such develop-ments due to the lack of legislation and uncertainty over the legal liability in cases of accidents involving pedestrians and motorists, who were unsure how to use the spaces.

Mike Biddulph in Homezones: A planning and design handbook 2003 describes the work of Barbara Preston, an academic and road safety campaigner as the person to first use the phrase HZ in her 1992 article ‘Cutting pedestrian casualties: Cost effective ways to make walking safer’.

In the report Preston attempted to readdress the high level of accidents and fatalities of pedestrians, especially children in the close vicinity of their homes and establish safer play areas for them, advocating the introduction of legislation, which made accidents involving pedestrians the liability of drivers in designated HZ streets.

Ref: For both images Home zones: A planning and design handbook, Mike Biddulph.

The Brow, Runcorn (1969)

Worthington Street, Leicester (1986)


The increase in car ownership was creating conditions within residential streets that were becoming dominated by passing traffic and parked cars. The principles of HZ’s were seen as a method of reducing this dominance and improving the quality of life of residents within their streets.

Pressure for legislation came from a variety of voluntary organisations and resident groups who sought a common cause concerning the condition of residential streets, traffic priority, quality of design, the environment and safer places for children’s outdoor play.

Prime supporters and lobbyists of the HZ concept were the Children’s Play Council who recognised the potential to improve safer streets for children’s play, resident groups such as Methleys Neighbourhood Action supported by Transport 2000 and Sutrans, both independent national bodies concerned with sustainable transport.

In the example of Methleys, Leeds 1996 the neighbourhood action group with the aid of a local arts grant purchased rolls of turf and laid it out on their street over a weekend inviting local media, councillors and residents to experience an environment that illustrated the effects of a street with reduced traffic priority.

Two images of Methleys, Leeds where

residents turfed their street to promote the wish to improve their

environment (1996).

Ref: Home zones: A planning and design handbook.


In an action proposed to reduce the severity of accidents involving pedestrians and motorists, legislation was introduced in June 1999 providing local councils with the ability to introduce 20mph speed limits within areas of their authority without requiring government approval from the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

“The creation of sensible, self enforcing 20mph speed limits and 20 mph zones has been highly successful in lowering traffic speeds and reducing the number of road accident casualties. This latest move will free up bureaucracy surrounding 20mph speed limits and will mean safer streets for our children”Lord Witty, the then Transport Minister.

With continued lobbying, increased awareness and government support, the Transport White paper ‘A New Deal for Transport (1998) proposed new initiatives which enabled the government to liaise with local authorities throughout the U.K to proceed with the construction of 14 HZ pilot schemes, nine in England and Wales, four in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland in August 1999. No statutory funding was provided, but as the schemes progressed they were monitored and evaluated to produce the first guidance reports on the planning and processes involved in adapting the principles of the HZ concept in new and existing streets. The inception of the pilot schemes resulted in the legislation allowing local authorities additional power to designate streets within their areas as HZ and was passed in the Transport Act 2000.

The publications included from the Department of Transport the Traffic Advisory leaflets 10/01 Home zones – planning and Design (Dec 2001) and 8/02 Home zones – Public participation (Dec 2002) which were produced to provide guidance to the professions involved in the planning and progression of HZ’s and a campaign video aimed at both professionals and residents to explain the essence of the concept using case studies from the Netherlands.

A HZ is a residential area where the street is designed to change the way the street is used to improve the quality of life of residents so they can talk to their neighbours, play, walk, and cycle safely in the streets. The aim is to change the balance between car dominance of streets and the use for streets for living.Department for Transport, 2001.


Through a study conducted by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) it became clear there existed deep-rooted institutional and cultural obstructions to developing high quality residential street environments as outlined in ‘Paving the Way – how to achieve clean, safe and attractive Streets’ (CABE 2002). These included:

The prevailing bias in favour of motorist’s interests in • government highway and design guidance,

The consequent exclusion of other street users interest in • government guidance and the way streets are

managed,

A shortage of design expertise in the various professions • who have responsibility for streets, and

The failure of the utility companies to acknowledge their • responsibility in maintaining quality streetscapes.

Ref: Cover of CABE’s Paving the way - how to achieve clead, safe and attractive streets, authors own edition.


The new legal status of HZ’s led to highway engineers demanding guidance notes. Home zone Design Guidelines (2002) by the Institute of Highway Incorporated Engineers. This publication was oriented towards the engineering concerns in developing HZ’s rather than the planning processes and relied heavily on the Dutch Woonerf’s.

This proved a defining moment as highway engineers realised that past methods had helped to stifle innovation, prevent the discovery of safe solutions and encouraged the dominance of the car. It also exposed the irrelevance of a previous dimension rationale relating to safer roads such as liberal corner radii.

On the work of the guidelines and the original pilot schemes, 2002 saw the creation of the Home zone Challenge Fund set up by the government, which proposed to inject a further £30 million of investment to HZ projects with the aim of advancing on previous schemes as a means of:

Producing a greater depth of knowledge in the implementation of HZ’s than from the first pilot schemes, which • instructed “how best to actively involve

local community interests”• (DfT, 2001)

And to assess the viability of the concept when applied to other regions throughout the country.•

This resulted in 110 authorities submitting for a total of 237 schemes for a final 61 successful applications to be announced in and around the United Kingdom.


This resulted in 110 authorities submitting for a total of 237 schemes for a final 61 successful applications to be announced in and around the United Kingdom.

With concern that the concept was not being fully applied within the U.K as in Holland with designated 10mp speed limits, Mark Lararowicz proposed the Safety Bill in June of 2003 permitting local authorities to establish 10mph speed limits, which resulted in the first and only 10mph speed limit at Morice Town, Plymouth.

The monitoring and evaluation of the new schemes produced the 2005 document Home Zones – Challenging the future of our streets (Department of Transport).

This report illustrated that the concept could adapt and work in various locations around the country and wasn’t applicable to mainland Europe only. This point was reinforced with the video Homezones: The U.K Experience, which displayed the evolution of the concept within the U.K.

Images of Pentamar St Community space andCharlotte St gateway of Morice Town HZ.

Ref: Images, Home Zone Design Guidlines, Institute of Highway Incorporated Engineers.

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS 15

Principles and Design considerations of Home zones.

Introducing a HZ requires a distinct approach to street design. Mentioned below are factors used to assist the design process to create a HZ scheme. These elements have been obtained from the works conducted on completed U.K pilot and Challenge projects and the experience gained from the Dutch Woonerf streetscapes. They are intentionally minimal to avoid becoming prescriptive and cover the essential topics that need to be addressed.

“The design of a HZ is crucial to achieving the low speeds that are necessary for the scheme to be successful and for the activities to take place safely”Homezones, Challenging the future of our streets, 2005.

Attractive and clear landscapes.In the construction of a HZ, street clutter of signs and unnecessary street furniture should be kept to a minimum.

Any feature proposed for traffic calming or landscaping should become part of a unified street, which is considered in relation to the street scene as a whole.

Project in Rijswijk, Holland demonstrates a simple uncluttered streetscape.

Ref: Image courtesy of Graham Smith.


GATEWAYS.A key component in the success of a HZ is the reduction in speed limits of vehicles. In mainland Europe the HZ principle has progressed to the extent that the majority of the urban population takes for granted the existence of reduced speed limits in residential streets, removing the need for a formalised gateway and standardised signage.

In the U.K the concept originally proposed that speed limits follow a hierarchal structure of gradual reduction from 30mph on main roads, 20mph on roads surrounding homezones and 10mph within it.

However the inability to replicate this model, through a lack of formalized legislation to provide consistency of these speed limits makes the gateway an integral element of HZ success.

By establishing recognized gateways at entry and exit points you are defining a different environment and making motorists aware that greater caution and a reduction in speed is required.

Gateway to one ofFive Roads HZ,West Ealing,London.

Gateway to Southville, Bristol.

Ref: Southville HZ image from Bristol University indepenent evaluation.


MOVEMENT.An element in the philosophy of the HZ is providing space where pedestrians, cyclists and drivers occupy a space at a relatively similar speed. The introduction of a shared surface between property boundaries and removing the definitions of the pavement and highway forces the motorists to negotiate the space with greater caution. The balancing of speeds between street users allows for safer and improved movement for pedestrians. This enables space to be reclaimed not just for enhanced movement, but also for other uses such as child’s play. The vertical surfaces of the vehicle path have been reduced except at selected points where cars have to pass each other to the width of a single car, restricting the flow of traffic. Different textures and colours have been applied to the vertical surface to denote passages intended for vehicle use.

More frequently used are horizontal structures of trees, planters, bollards and street furniture to break the drivers line of vision through the street and create deflections in the linear surface to force the motorist to consider their movements and speed more carefully, leading to an overall reduction in traffic speeds. It is essential when designing these interventions to consider and consult with local utility service providers such as waste removal trucks and emergency services to ensure access and movement is not inhibited.

Traffic calming measures in streetscape. A. Horizontal deflections in highway (example chicanes). B. Vertical shift in highway such as humps, cushions, ramps etc. C. Highway restrictions which restrict traffic flow. D. Small Corner radii.

E. Unclear junction priorities which rely on driver eye contact.

F. Changes in colour and texture of highway surfaces.

A

B C

D E

Ref: Sketches authors own applied from Home zones: A planning and design handbook.


PARKING.Parking is a major concern to residents of potential HZprojects. Parking spaces may already be at a premium and concept relating to reduce car reliance by reducing parking bays may be keenly contested.

Approaches to resolve the issue have been to efficiently manage the allocation of spaces by implementing methods such as echelon parking, with its reduced or variable parking bay widths, it allows for larger numbers of vehicles to be parked.

A positive consequence of creating high quality street environments is the uncertainty it generates to motorists living outside the scheme, who being unsure whether the site is public or private space and therefore less likely to use it for all day parking.

LIGHTINGThe level and quality of lighting is important to providing feelings of safety and security. Lighting should be located toilluminate speed-reducing features at night, while care should be taken to reduce intrusive light and avoid light pollution.

Plan view displaying selection of configurations in the arrangement of parking spaces.

Ref: Sketches authors own applied from Home zone: Design Guidelines, IHIE.


FACILITATING PLAYA major aim in establishing HZ’s is providing areas for children to play safely. These could be introduced with formal or informal play areas. Formal arrangements could be set within a defined space containing a variety of play equipment located with good natural surveillance and not posing a nuisance to neighbouring residents. The inclusion of formal play has in some schemes generated a negative response from residents concerned about the gathering of older children. To counter this, informal play areas can be created through the use of street furniture or unusually shaped bollards that allow the children to use their own imagination together with the increased social domain of the shared street space.

BLIND & DISABLEDWith the momentum gained from the development of pilot and challenge schemes, the removal of the traditional street setting of a defined pavement and highway in favour of a shared surface has resulted in a conflict from parties supporting the partially sighted and the blind members of the community. With the shared surface they have lost tools aiding their safe movement and have confused guide dogs trained to recognise the defined setting.

Several groups have called for the removal of the shared surface principle and in some case this has been required, but hasn’t distracted from the concept of the shared space. In the development at Ashford in Surrey of the Public Realm Shared Space Project, a strategy of incorporating textured corduroy paving units with informal pedestrian pathways within the shared surface environment has enabled partially sighted and blind people to efficiently walk from one destination to the next.

Ben Hamiliton-Baillie in his recent talk on shared spaces at the London branch of the Landscape Institute suggested that although many groups had become entrenched in the public view on their objection, identifying and closely liaising with individuals and groups through the implementing stages of schemes can result in a compromise to satisfy both parties and continue the progression of the scheme.The same level of communication is required when approaching the needs of people with other disabilities. The Department of Transport has funded research into making the schemes fully accessible and safe for disabled residents while retaining the concept of the shared space.

IMPLEMENTATION 20

Implementation of Home zones.

“Community involvement and participation are essential within the design process if results are to be valued by residents. Create pride and ownership”Home zone: Planning and Design Handbook (2002), Mike Biddulph.

HZ’s are being used to improve community cohesion by bringing residents together to increase the quality of the environment within their residential streets.

Resident involvement is primary to the success any proposed HZ, as expressed by Ben Hamilton-Baillie when describing his observations studying the concept of HZ’s in mainland Europe.

In his study report Home zones: Reconciling people, places and transport, he recognised that no one HZ street resembled the other, all had common features such as shared surfaces, the use of trees, planting and street fur-niture to define and screen street parking, the use of bollards and street lighting to define a space, and the use of simple gateways at entry points. But the use of these features was different in every case due to involvement of the local residents in the design process.

The most successful HZ within the U.K have occurred from following the Dutch approach to involving local residents with the various stages of project implementation.

Resident commitment, consultation and involvement are vital aspects; the full support of the local community is fundamental to the development of a proposed scheme within any existing residential street. The consultation of residents will allow the project to contain realistic desires and requirements of the community for their potential streetscape.

IMPLEMENTATION 21

Allowing for continual and transparent dialogue with residents from the start of a project will reduce any potential misunderstandings and objections between professionals and local authorities with the local community, which may later delay project progression.

Outside facilitators can aid the planning process for a HZ by understanding and reassuring residents about development issues, community planning techniques and providing expertise concerning highway, landscape and urban design. This will help overcome any fears residents have about the scheme being forced upon them by local authorities and sustain their commitment as well as promoting an inspired and responsive project. The planning process should seek to consult, provide support and encourage the contribution of positive feedback from minority members of the community who are unsure or doubtful of the benefits from environmental improvements to their neighbourhood, on the grounds of social exclusion or immobility. These include children and young adults, socially disadvantaged people, the elderly, ethnic minorities and disabled residents.

Very few residents will possess the ability to decipher two-dimensional plans and drawing details illustrating their environment. Proposed HZ schemes should be presented using methods and tools easily related to the community.

These can involve models to illustrate the concept, interactive computer simulations, which provide human-scale walk through perspectives or full scale mock-ups, set up in the street on organised fun days to offer a tangible idea of the benefits from the proposal. All these methods help with raising the awareness of utilising the streets space, while unconsciously enhancing community spirit.

APPRAISAL OF COMPLETED HOME ZONE PROJECTS 22

Appraisal of completed Home zone projects.

One of the primary aims of the 2002 Home Zone Challenge scheme was to monitor and evaluate the various factors that contributed to the successful implementation and establishment of a project, to learn lessons and help ensure a smoother trajectory through the different phases by minimising previous errors. The 2005 document Home zones: Challenging our street (DfT) was marketed as supplying the evidence and evaluations of the 61 approved schemes around the U.K to assess HZ implementation and level of success in applying the concept from mainland Europe.

Unfortunately the monitoring of schemes proved irregular due to the lack of funds made available for their collation and naivety from highway engineers who underestimated how long it would take for schemes to progress. Of the 61 projects only 39 were able to provide responses.

The Home zone challenge scheme identified from the outset a defined variety of objectives that would be used to assess the impact of the HZ concept on their prescribed streetscapes and residing community. The objectives identified were:

• Reduced vehicle speeds.• Reduced real/perceived crime.

Safer play for children• • Improvement in environmental quality.• Enhanced community cohesion.

These objectives were quantified by conducting before and after surveys of traffic speeds/volumes, frequency of accidents and questionnaires from residents to seek opinions on the general consensus concerning HZ intervention.

By illustrating several case studies of completed projects I hope to expose the levels of success or failure generated within schemes that monitored the objectives described.


Reduced vehicle speeds.Of the responding completed schemes from the Home Zone Challenge, over 50% noted a fall in traffic speeds of between 10 and 15 mph. The lowest mean speed of 6mph being recorded in the Northam HZ in Southampton. The table below compiled by Tim Gill in his 2005 paper The Home zones movement in the U.K: history, progress and prospects compiled figures from 41 schemes before and after the implementation of a home zone and supports previous evidence of reduced speeds. Although success can be claimed in lowering the speed limits of the greater percentage the vehicles moving through designated 20mph HZ areas and reducing a correlating number of accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists, the majority of vehicles still travel over the initial target speed of 10mph, weakening the claim of imposing safer streets for children as expressed in Woonerf interventions.

Reduced real/perceived crime.Evidence from crime statistics indicates that there are reductions in crime levels following the intervention of a HZ. The turn around in some schemes has been dramatic, with Morice Town in Plymouth reporting 92 crimes between 2001-02 and in the following year after completion of their project, just nine crimes were registered, a drop of 90%.

At Ashston West End, Tameside, Manchester, it was disclosed that domestic burglary was down 80% and car crime reduced by 50%. A key element in the improvements was not only to reduce crimes, but also the perception of crime through improved lighting and security provision, so creating an environment less attractive to potential criminals.

Mean speed mph <10 10-15 15-20 20+ Don’t know

Mean speed kmh <17 17-25 25-34 34+

No of Schemes (41) 4 15 15 2 5Ashton West End, Tameside,Manchester HZ.

Ref: Image fron The home zones movement in the U.K: History, progress and prospects.


Safer play for children.As previously stated, the intended reduction of car speeds to 10mph has been very rarely achieved.

This appears to express itself in the varied response received in the desired goal of improving safety of children’s play and extending the social domain to encourage greater diversity of activities.

In cases such as Camden in London, 82% of residents said that more children were playing in the street as a result of their home zone and in the Southville HZ scheme, Bristol, when residents replied to the question ‘Are streets safer for children’s play?’ in an independent survey conducted by Bristol University on the behalf of the local authority, 88% of residents who replied said yes.

But again using the research of Tim Gill, a study into the impact on children’s outdoor play delivers a mixed message. Of the 41 projects evaluated, 21 believed the level of outdoor play had increased, while 9 said it was about the same and 11 didn’t know.

There could be numerous reasons behind these discrepancies such as loca-tion of projects, introductions of barriers to prevent rat running, but it is still recognised that over half of evaluated projects produced positive results and may suggest more work is required during the planning process of proposed schemes.

Children enjoying safe play in the street. Lumpton Street, Camden, London.

Ref: Images authors own and from report Reviewing home U.K home zone initiatives, Mike Biddulph.


Improvement in environmental quality.When evaluating the enhancement of the residential streetscape within a HZ, every project reported positively to the change of their environment. This was partly due to the sympathetic design, high quality use of materials, the softening of the streets with the establishment of trees and planters and the considered placement of street furniture to create an inviting and attractive space in which to reside.

This change in ambiance has helped form the notion that the improvement of the environment has a direct effect on generating a positive effect on residents health and well being, adding to a raised morale and community spirit. The HZ also provides a safe location for walkers and cyclists who can take advantage of the improved links to go about their daily routine.

From left to right. Bespoke mobile planters/bench in Suothville, Bristol. Mosaic bench in Lupton St, Camden.Raised timber planters in Porchester, Hampshire. Cycling bays/planters in Cavendish Rd, Kingston.

Ref: Images authors own bar Southville and Porchester from Home zones: Challenging our Streets, Department for Transport.


Enhanced Community cohesion. In the majority of HZ developments there has been the reawakening of community spirit, the whole implementation process from the initial design to the final handover had generated communication that bound the community together, as in the example of the Five Roads Forum, a resident group from West Ealing home zone in London.

“It was the initial common cause of improving our streets that revealed the more important aspect of regaining neighbourliness”Five Roads Forum resident.

In a few instances, members of the same community contested decisions on particular elements of a proposed scheme. This resulted in frictions, which remained after the completion of the project, tainting the notion of creating an enhanced community.

These instances were partly due to the break down of communication during the consultation stage and a poor delivery of information to residents, highlighting the need for professionals maintain clear concise dialogue and realistic ambitions to residents.

However in the main, the reclaiming of the streets for child’s play and other activities has raised the frequency of encounters between residents, contributing with a sense of ownership and pride from defining their own neighbourhood and generating a real sense of community.

FUTURE OF HOME ZONES 27

Future of Home zones.

Momentum behind the advancement of HZ’s is rising continually, along with a number of organisations advocating the development of projects. The points outlined below highlight the areas which need to be considered if HZ’s are to be more widely accepted within the U.K.

FundingFor retrofit schemes, there needs to be a greater understanding of the planning processes involved in their development. The huge disparity in final costs per street metre in the completed Challenge scheme projects highlights the varied interpretation made of the concept by the various local authorities around the country and their application of it.

Since the completion of the Challenge scheme projects there have been no additional statutory investment. With the high cost of retrofit schemes, government and local authourity assistance would be vital, but in the current economic climate this aid will be hard to find.

The completed projects have provided a demonstration of the benefits of adapting the urban environment to the principles of the Woonerf ideal and the attractive lifestyle it generates for its community. These advancements in improving the quality of life for residents are evident visually and through evaluated research, which has been recognised by private sector and developers. It is the private sector, whose investment will now govern the continuation of the HZ concept in future developments.

FUTURE OF HOME ZONES 28

STRATEGYThe inclusion of a HZ to an urban environment can contribute to its overall transport strategy and begin to enable residents to reconsider their approach to the ways in which they travel. The ideology focused on improving the quality of life of the community within its residential streets, encourages residents to redefine the previously ingrained notion through post war planning that streets are the priority of the motorcar and other uses are secondary.

Through studying the progression of the Woonerf, its home zone cousin can become part of a broader strategy, which leads residents to enrich their environments and move towards more sustainable forms of transport away from the dependency of the car.

The home zone can act as a node in a series of links that creates a safe infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians to move within the urban environment and provide a secure point from which young children can learn the skills to benefit from such networks. Bike pools, health walks, community bike rides and maintenance-training workshops all help to promote healthy, sustainable transport.

Initiatives such as Travelsmart provide advice and support to households to change personal travel behaviour and in Southville, Bristol there was a 7% increase in walking journeys, 22% increase in cycling trips and 18% rise in residents using public transport.

FUTURE OF HOMEZONES 29

PROMOTIONPromotion is integral to development of the HZ concept in the U.K. In Holland the principal is widely taken for granted in residential areas and the community understands how to use the spaces correctly.

In the U.K however the concept is relatively new and only a minority of people are aware of its availability, the ma-jority having experience of just the highway and pavement for their streets.

National government and local authorities need to support the HZ concept in key policy statements, in revisions to the Highway Code and Driving test and through concise research, which illustrates the benefits from introducing home zone schemes.

Local authorities could train officers to become dedicated in promoting and developing schemes, whilst having the knowledge and tools to assist interested groups.

FUTURE OF HOMEZONES 30

NEW DEVELOPMENTS AND THE PLANNING SYSTEMThe principles that make a HZ should be adopted by the development of new residential or mixed used schemes. The economics involving the inception of a project are lower within a new build than with retrofit schemes and even though the consultation process is removed from new developments, there exist successful examples from the pilot and challenge schemes that provide sufficient precedent.

Foreword thinking developers are already incorporating the ethos in the knowledge of how it appeals to the general public in prioritising the values of the community and the commercial advantage it entails. For developers to be able to progress with projects the planning system needs to be formulated to aid their quicker facilitation, byremoving bureaucratic barriers.

Local authority departments of highway engineers, planners and legislation involved in the planning and design of HZ’s need to fully comprehend the principles and amend polices in their development plans to help deliversuccessful schemes.

This includes amending previous residential design guidance and highway standards to include the HZ ideal and be prepared to provide planning permission to innovative proposals rather then forcing developers to fall back to traditional street settings.

CONCLUSION 31

With regard to the retrofit HZ schemes involving existing residential streets, the achille’s heel lies in the expense of Implementation of schemes. The last Governmental investment was for the Challenge scheme nine years ago at a transition of party power and a current time of recession additional assistance looks slim. At an average of £1000 per square metre to install a retrofit project, the financial costs when compared to the supposed benefits are unfortunately questioned. As rewards of rediscovering and enhancing local communities are long term qualitative benefits, rather than short term quantitative results, the aim of delivering the HZ concept is often blurred between the total embracing of the principles and the addition of traffic calming measures such as a few speed bumps, which provide a cheaper option and return quick responses in lower traffic speeds and accidents. A possible solution devised by Sustrans is DIY Streets, where a shopping basket of measures delivering the ethos of a HZ is provided to individual residential streets, which depending on budget can select options to transform their environments. This is still a relatively new approach and could be the answer to continue the momentum of the good work already achieved, so its progress will have to be monitored.What the initiatives of the pilot and Challenge schemes have achieved is to prove that the ideas adopted from the Dutch Woonerf model are applicable within the U.K. and that the concept does what it tenders, by reducing traffic speeds, lowering accidents involving pedestrians, creating safer play for children and improving the cohesion of com-munities. Both of which are possible parts of the solution to tackle child obesity and broach the tensions that occur in a Multi-cultural society living on top of one another.Where the HZ application of the U.K may have its biggest affect is focusing the answer for providing sustainable transport solutions. The HZ by principle reduces the dependency of the car by improving opportunities for walking and cycling. It then becomes a hub providing a safe point where tomorrows generation can develop the skills to ben-efit and hopefully take for granted an infrastructure of link to other reclaimed sections of the social domain.The main barrier to the success of the HZ concept is the inability to install a hierarchy of speed limits around and up to designated areas. This is a failure on the part, or lack of stringent legislation, however with the increasing number of Prestigious new developments adopting the HZ principles and the guidance taken from the innovative transport Policies in countries like Holland, Denmark and Germany, the home zone is a demonstration set to become part of broader policy of expanding the social domain to the boundary of urban areas by reducing overall traffic speeds, volumes and dominance of the vehicle within our towns and making spaces increasingly permeable and safer for the pedestrian and cyclists alike.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 32

BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.1. Homezones, Design guidelines, Institute of Highway Incorporated Engineers,2001.2. Homezone - A planning and design handbook, Mike Biddulph, 2001.3. Living and the Community, Geoff Mulgan.4. A Defensible Space, Oscar Newman,1972.5. Neighbourhood Space, Randulph. T.Hester, Jnr, 1975. 6. The quest for the Community, David.C.Thorns.7. Streets and the shaping of towns and cities. Michael Southworth and Eran Ben-Joseph, 2003.8. Home zones: Challenging the future of our streets, Department of Transport, 2005.9. Paving the Way – how to achieve clean, safe and attractive Streets, CABE, 2002.10. Livable streets, D.Appleyard, 1981.11. Van woonerf tot erf, Crow, 1989.12. Woonervan and other experiments in the Netherlands, Built Environment, 1986.13. Royal Dutch Touring Club, The Hague, 1977.14. Traffic calming through intregrated traffic calming, H.G.Vahl, 1990.15. The child in the city, C.Ward, 1978.16. Landscapes fpr learning: Creating outdoor environments for children and Youth, S.Stine, 1997.

LEAFLETS.Department of Transport1. Traffic advisory leaflet - TAL 10/01 Homezones - planning and design, 2001.2. Traffic advisory leaflet, 8/02, 2002, Home zones – Public participation, RESEARCH REPORTS.1. Homezones, Joseph Rowntree Foundation.2. Homezones, Tim Gill , Childstreet paper.3. Living streets, Strategic framework, Living streets.4. Reviewing the U.K home zone initiatives. Mike Biddulph.5. Home zones - Reconciling people, places and Transport. Ben Hamilton-Baillie.6. Traffic and towns, Ministry of Transport,1963.7. Cutting pedestrian casualties: Cost effective ways to make walking safer, Babara Preston, 1992.

WEBSITES.1. www.homezones.org.uk.

VIDEO.1. Homezones: The U.K Experiance (policy press 2003).

Talks.1. Ben Hamilton-Baillie and Lindsey Whitelaw on Shared Spaces at London Branch of Landscape Institute, May, 2009.

APPENDIX 33

Home zone Pilot projects in the U.K.

The Fourteen Pilot Schemes.

1. Cavell Way, Swale, Kent. 2. Nobel Road, Clifton, Nottingham. 3. Magnor Vllage, Monmouthshire. 4. Morice Town, Plymouth. 5. New England, Peterborough. 6. Northmoor, Manchester. 7. The Methleys, Leeds. 8. Five Roads, West Ealing, London 9. Holmewood, Lambeth, London. 10. The Caleys, Edingborough. 11. Former Dundee Royal Infirmary, Constitution Road, Dundee. 12. Ormlie, Caithness and sutherland. 13. Tillydrone, Aberdeen. 14. Long Streets, Belfast.

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APPENDIX 34

Challenge home zone projects in the U.K.

The Sixty one Challenge Schemes.

1. Albany St, Hull. 22. Lupton St, Camden. 43. Addison Cresent, Trafford. 2. Morrside Estate, Kirklees. 23. Deptford Green, Greenwich. 44. Ashton West End, Tameside. 3. Crosby, Scunthorpe. 24. Cavendish Rd, Kingston, London. 45. Wardleworth, Rochdale. 4. Littlemoor, Leeds. 25. Cranberry Estate, Newham. 46. Victoria Lane Estate, Bury. 5. Castle Gove, Porchester. 26. Sutherland Sq, Southwark. 47. Bidston Avenue, St Helens. 6. Radcliffe Rd, Southampton. 27. Cowpen Quay, Northumberland. 48. Browning St, Wigan. 7. Town Farm Estate, East Hailsham. 28. Pately Moor, Darlington. 49. Pitts Farm, Erdington. 8. Heathfield Avenue, Dover 29. Tyne Park, Gateshead. 50. Lower Mileshouse, Staffs. (ABANDONED) 30. Gresham, Middlesborough. 51. Wilmot Drive, Newcastle. 9. Northcourt Estate, Denton. 31. The Triangle, North Shields. 52. West Woodside, Telford. 10. North-West Bognor Regis 32. Cleadon Park, North Shields. 53. Three Tuns, Woolverhampton. 11. Kingsbridge Rd, Reading. 33. Talboert & Brunswick, 54. Duke of Edingborough Way, 12. Saxton Rd, Abingdon Blackpool. Malvern. Oxfordshire. 35. Oldham Estate, Oldham. 55. Albert Avenue, Peasdon. 13. Haymarket Green, Luton. 36. Egerton St, Chester. 56. St John Malvern, Bath. 14. New England, Peterborough. 37. Burnley, Lancashire. (CANCELLED) 15. Cambridge Rd, Suffolk. 38. Poulton, Morcombe. 57. Southville, Bristol. 16. Cavell Rd, Norwich. 39. Dundonald & Methusen St, 58. North Close Estate, Redruth. 17. Kennington Rd, Nottingham. Wirrel. 59. Wonford, Exeter. 18. Normanton, Derby. 40. Grafton St, Liverpool. 60. Morice Town, Plymouth. 20. Linden Rd, Haringey. 41. Whitecross, Warrington. 61. Westliegh, Warminister. 21. Rookery Gardens, Bromley. 42. Whitecross, Warrington.

extended essay: home zones in the u.k

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