Living street

German Woonerf or living street (Dan Burden)

A living street (also known as a home zone, and by the Dutch name woonerf) is a street in which, unlike in most streets, the needs of car drivers are secondary to the needs of users of the street as a whole. It is a space designed to be shared by pedestrians, bicyclists, and low-speed motor vehicles.

For much of the twentieth century, streets were designed by engineers who were charged only with ensuring traffic flow, but it has become apparent that streets have many social and recreational functions which are severely impaired by fast car traffic. The living street is an attempt to design for all the functions of streets.

Dutch Woonerf (Dan Burden)

These streets are often at the same grade as curbs and sidewalks. Cars are limited to a speed that does not disrupt other uses of the streets (usually defined to be pedestrian speed). To make this lower speed natural, the street is normally set up so that a car cannot drive in a straight line for significant distances, for example by placing planters at the edge of the street, alternating the side of the street the parking is on, or curving the street itself. Other traffic calming measures are also used. However, early methods of traffic calming such as speed humps are now avoided in favor of methods which make slower speeds more natural to drivers, rather than an imposition.

The woonerf movement originated in the Netherlands in the seventies. Living streets have become extremely common there, in Germany, and in Scandinavia, and are increasing in Britain.

Living street

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