The Birmingham Post 21st September 2000

Home Zones by Phil Jones

Home Zone - the term probably doesn't mean anything to most people in this country. But Home Zones - a radical approach to street design developed by the Dutch - might just be a future model for the way we live.

Most existing residential areas, whether in cities, towns or villages, are built around the needs of the car - and so what do we get? A wide strip of smooth tarmac for traffic, with people on foot confined to narrow pavements on either side, so often with cars parked across them. Even on traffic-calmed streets, it is pedestrians who have to stand and wait for a gap between cars, before crossing rapidly to the other side of the street. The responsibility is on the pedestrian to take care - and so stay alive. As car ownership rises, our streets become more and more dominated by moving vehicles. Our communities become increasingly divided, people become more insular and children are told to play indoors. The car is king, the street is dead.

But within a Home Zone the situation is radically altered - the car is seen as the guest, the street is reclaimed for its residents. Drivers enter a place designed to meet the needs of those who live there, not the one-tonne machines passing through. Traffic speeds are kept below 10mph. Pedestrians, of any age, are able to walk anywhere in the street without fear of injury. Children are again allowed to play in the street - encouraged even, by the play equipment provided between the houses. Accidents are reduced and communities strengthened.

Although a new concept in this country, Home Zones are very common in continental Europe. The idea originated in Holland, where there are now many thousands of such areas. Home Zones can also be found throughout Denmark and Germany.

In these and other countries, the law requires all vehicles to give way to pedestrians within such a designated area. An internationally-recognised traffic sign, showing children playing in a street shared with traffic, marks the beginning of a Home Zone.



Inside a Home Zone, the street is redesigned. Dutch practice is to remove the kerbs separating the area for cars (the road) from the area for pedestrians (the pavement). They have found that retaining the kerb simply shows drivers that they have the right to travel as fast as they like, without taking care to avoid people on foot.

Ideally, the whole surface is level, and usually paved in setts or blocks rather than tarmac, to help to distinguish the Home Zone from a normal road. To keep speeds very low, drivers have to pick their way carefully around items of street furniture - such as trees, planters, benches and tables - which limit forward vision. On-street parking is allowed, but is often arranged in blocks, end-on to houses, so that cars have to weave between them.

Home Zones represent a step beyond the types of traffic calming we have become used to in this country, such as road humps and narrowings. Although traffic calming is very effective in reducing traffic speeds, it leaves the normal 'car first' priority unchanged. In a Home Zone, the street becomes more than a place for movement - it becomes a community space, for people to meet and play. The target speed for traffic is below 10mph.

Unfortunately there are, as yet, few examples of Home Zones in the UK. One barrier to their widespread introduction is that the change in the law needed to permit the international Home Zone sign has not been made. This is not for the want of trying - a Private Member's bill was put before Parliament a couple of years ago, but failed, as did an attempt to add the necessary clauses to last year's Transport Bill. The Government has indicated strong support for the concept of Home Zones, most notably in the Transport White Paper, but has not deemed the idea worthy of scarce Parliamentary time.

Instead, John Prescott's DETR has set up a Pilot Programme, consisting of 9 schemes across England and Wales and a further 3 in Scotland. These projects will be designed on Home Zone principles, and monitored for their effectiveness, but must operate within the present law. One valuable concession has been secured, however - the DETR is allowing advisory '10mph' signs to be erected, but it remains to be seen whether these will be an adequate substitute for the change in priority allowed elsewhere in Europe.

To treat large parts of the UK's residential areas in this way will place a huge demand on local authorities' transport budgets, although other funds such as the Single Regeneration Budget may have a part to play.

Although the Government's recent 10 Year Transport Plan has promised a large increase in transport funding, decision makers tend to favour high profile, major schemes - the £50m bypass, the £100m light rail system - rather than simpler measures such as Home Zones and traffic calming. Such projects are of immense value, but only to a local area. The long waiting lists for traffic calming schemes throughout the UK are evidence of this 'large is beautiful' approach. And on new schemes, housebuilders will need to be convinced that the higher costs of a more attractive street will be reflected in the purchase price.

So, in the end, whether Home Zones become as widely adopted in this country as they are elsewhere in Europe will depend on whether people want them. And if they do, whether they want them enough to persuade the authorities and the development industry to find the money to pay for them. Until then, our residential streets will remain as places for cars, not people.

Phil Jones is an Associate Director in the Birmingham office of WSP Development, an engineering consultancy specialising in the planning and design of infrastructure.

Email - phil.jones@wspgroup.com

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