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Events This report has been prepared by Caroline Field of Moat Housing Society, Sevenoaks, Kent and was published in March 2000. Please use
the navigation below to move to the pages of interest: The Street
Party |
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Residents Association has held an estate fun day for several years.
The fun day usually takes place on the play area. This year we took
the event out on to the street, to show that we could challenge the
supremacy of the car. On the morning of the fun day, children turned
out to paint their own road signs, telling cars to drive slowly and
watch out for children playing. This was their first introduction
to the Home Zone. The concept was entirely rational to the children
and they were wholeheartedly enthusiastic. |
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Cavell
Way Fun Day
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Mid-morning
a lorry load of straw bales was delivered and the residents built
temporary DIY traffic calming. The road was constricted at either
end of the stretch used for the street party. A row of straw bales
in the road provided seating for children watching magic and puppet
shows and forced cars to crawl past. |
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The constriction of the road was accepted by all the cars passing that day and all comments were favourable. We took care not to obstruct the road to emergency vehicles. An ambulance called to a house on Cavell Way passed through without any difficulty and police visiting the estate were complimentary about the straw bale calming. The fun day started the wider debate about the road. The idea of traffic calming, already popular, was further endorsed. Many were still unconvinced that other uses of the street should be encouraged. A typical comment was: 'The cars should go this slowly all the time, then we can to stop the children playing on the road'. Open Meeting The next event was an open meeting with the aim of discussing the Home Zone concept in more detail. Adrian Sinclair, a resident of the Methleys in Leeds and long term Home Zone campaigner in his neighbourhood came to share his experience and ideas. There is no meeting place on the estate so we met at a local youth centre. Free fish and chips, were offered as an incentive to participation. Moat Housing Society produced fliers which were distributed by the Residents Association. About a dozen residents attended. Adrian's talk was well received. A professional filmmaker, he set out to challenge the assumption that children should not be on the streets with his video celebrating play in the Methleys. The Resident's Association worked hard to publicise and promote this evening. There would have been higher attendance had we had access to a venue on the estate. However it is clear that only a minority of residents will attend a meeting and while it is essential to have structural forums for discussion, they need to be supplemented with informal communication. Visit to the Netherlands In September
1999, a party of seven travelled to the Netherlands to look at established
Home Zones. Transport 2000 had run a similar trip earlier in the
year so we were able to adapt their itinerary to suit our own objectives.
Our party consisted of: |
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Visiting together was essential and has helped facilitate joint working since. We saw the same things, discussed and learned together. Brian was able to highlight just how radical the traffic calming was in contrast to the UK norm. Adrian (undeterred by the language barrier) specialised in buttonholing local residents for their views. One interesting visit was to a Home Zone which residents felt was not working. This estate was newly built and had been designated a Home Zone as an afterthought. The traffic calming was not severe enough to restrict speeds adequately. Much of the
information we had read on Home Zones stressed the importance of
gaining residents' commitment to the concept. This experience showed
us that, while resident involvement was crucial, it was not sufficient
to ensure compliance. We returned from the trip knowing that we
were going to have to press for consent to the most radical traffic
calming measures we could secure. |
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