Radical streets? The impact of innovative street designs on liveability and activity in residential areas

This article aims to understand whether streets designed to be more liveable encourage a greater variety of street users and activities. To date there is little evidence that traffic calming or speed limits alone result in a change in how streets are used. This study is focused on more radical treatments. It discusses UK streets that conform to woonerf design criteria, which in the United Kingdom are called home zones. Seven recently completed new-build case studies were observed for 6 hours each and the nature of activity within the street environments was recorded. The results show that children in particular used the streets intensively for long periods, and that they engaged in a wide variety of play activities across the whole area of the street with relative freedom. Adults were also seen spending time in home zones, but the sense is that this was in response to the children playing there. The results suggest that these more radical street treatments are lived in and used differently compared to streets with just speed limit controls or traffic calming. URBAN DESIGN International (2012) 17, 178-205. doi:10.1057/udi. 2012.13; published online 11 July 2012