Evaluating the English Home Zone Initiatives

Home zones are streets designed to be shared by vehicles and pedestrians with the goal of improving livability. This paper evaluates the concept of home zones and discusses lessons on street design that professional planners can take from recent English home zone initiatives. Monitoring data on 14 home zone projects was gathered to draw generalizable lessons from the initiatives. The findings show that the concept of the home zone has not been fully implemented in all cases. In general, these projects exhibited lower traffic speeds and continued low or reduced numbers of traffic accidents compared to conditions before the home zones were implemented. Residents report that they now feel their streets are safer for their children. Home zone streets were also reported to be more attractive than they were previously. Some home zone streets in high crime areas experienced reduced levels of crime and antisocial behavior, although these results were not obtained everywhere. There is little evidence that home zone streets promoted more socializing among adults. Although similar effects might be realized with less comprehensive and expensive solutions, it appears that home zone initiatives generally have improved livability.

• Record URL:
  http://tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01944361003622688
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/4626214
• Authors:
  • Biddulph, Mike
• Publication Date: 2010

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 199-218
• Serial:
  • Journal of the American Planning Association
  • Volume: 76
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: American Planning Association
  • ISSN: 0194-4363
  • Serial URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjpa20/current

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Design; Evaluation and assessment; Pedestrian areas; Residential streets; Residents
• Uncontrolled Terms: Home zones
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; I20: Design and Planning of Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01157655
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 30 2010 7:44AM