Lentis/Shared Space and Woonerven

Introduction

Shared Space is an urban design method that diminishes the physical barriers between modes of road usage. A Woonerf (plural—Woonerven) is an example of residential Shared Space. Both employ tactics to dissuade automobile use, promote nonmotorized travel methods, and redefine streets as social grounds. This casebook chapter summarizes the history of Shared Space and Woonerven, urban design tactics and legislation used to create them, community effects, participants and their agendas, and what these phenomena can teach us.

History

Dutch Woonerf

The concept of Shared Space began in the Dutch city of Delft in the late 1960’s, in response to residents’ concerns about traffic in residential areas. Drawing on the work of the British city planner Colin Buchanan, the city developed the concept of a “Woonerf,” or “living street” to provide a space for communities to gather without fear of fast-moving traffic. Generally speaking, a Woonerf is a residential area designed explicitly to favor pedestrians, as opposed to automobiles. The concept spread rapidly throughout continental Europe with over 3500 Woonerven being built in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany by 1990. Woonerven also proved popular in densely packed countries such as Israel, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Recent estimates suggest that there are now more than 6000 Woonerven in the Netherlands alone, providing housing for over 12% of the Dutch population.

Drawing from the principles of Woonerven, Dutch engineer Hans Monderman developed his principle of “Shared Space” in the early 1980’s. Shared Space seeks to redesign city streets to promote walking and cycling, in contrast to the automobile-centric design philosophy prevalent at the time. As such, Woonerven can be thought of as a subset of Shared Space, where pedestrians are heavily favored. An example of Shared Space in action is in the Dutch city of Amsterdam, which removed all car parking and collaborated with residents to redesign the streets to favor child play areas, gardens, and bike parking. While some parking is still necessary in the form of loading zones, automobiles no longer dominate the city and inhabitants are incentivized to walk and cycle to their destinations. The concept of Shared Space is not unique to the Netherlands, Monderman's work has inspired other European cities such as Oslo and Ljubljana to reorient their cities away from motor vehicle traffic.

Shared Space Elements and Urban Design Tactics

Typical sign designating a Woonerf

In order to implement Shared Space, Monderman advocates the removal of curbs, road surface markings, signs, and traffic lights in an effort to calm traffic, improve road safety, and increase community cohesion. Some cities, such as Amsterdam, removed vehicle parking spots, while others, such as Nijmegen in the Netherlands, go further and utilize movable barriers, or “Bollards” to limit vehicle traffic inside the city. Taken together, these characteristics can be thought of as a form of “Choice Architecture,” where driving is disincentivized due to the removal of design features that favor automobiles, resulting in more people choosing to walk or cycle. By reducing the barriers between pedestrians, drivers, and cyclists, residents are free to use the mode of transport that they prefer.

Woonerven, themselves being a subset of the Shared Space model, utilize similar urban design techniques to reduce the prevalence of cars in residential areas. A common Woonerf will be well marked and have many design features to force drivers to reduce speed and become more aware. This may consist of road narrowing, changes in elevation, placement of gardens, and strategic alternation of parking between the left- and right-hand side of the road. Since the streets in a Woonerf are open for recreational use, they slowly erode the perception that streets are primarily for cars.

Legislation

Though different nations have slightly different legislation describing Woonerven usage, they share a common theme — pedestrians have more power and protections than automobiles. For example, the Netherlands' Traffic Regulations for Woonerf states that pedestrians may play in and use the full width of the public road, that drivers may not drive faster than walking pace, and that any automobile driver who hits a cyclist is presumed guilty. Belgium's Belgian Traffic Code: Article 22a states that drivers must not endanger or hinder pedestrians and must adhere to a 20 kph speed limit, but it also states that pedestrians must not obstruct traffic unnecessarily. In an attempt to promote Woonerven, United Kingdom's Transport Act 2000: Section 268 allows local authorities to create, mark, and regulate "home zones", which serve the same purpose as Woonerven.

Effects

Downtown mall in Charlottesville, VA completely shut off to traffic

Implementing Woonerven can have both positive and negative effects on local participants. A major positive effect is an empirical increase in road safety — according to Canin Associates, implementing Woonerven in the Netherlands led to a 40% decrease in traffic accidents. Furthermore, survey respondents have indicated that Woonerven encourage more recreation on public streets and improve communication between neighbors. In addition, Woonerven foster quieter cities with lower automobile usage. Woonerven also have economic benefits; not only do they increase the value of nearby properties, but they also encourage the development and usage of local street markets.

A major obstacle to Woonerf adoption is its impacts on drivers, facilitated by the aforementioned urban design tactics. However, the majority of survey respondents indicated that they would be willing to accept such driving tradeoffs in exchange for Woonerven's benefits. Moreover, Woonerven can be costly to implement; a single Woonerf between two office buildings in Seattle would cost $2.1 million to construct.

Adoption of Woonerven depends heavily on local culture. In the U.S., for example, cars are considered more essential and are used more often than in most European nations. This can lead to backlash from U.S. drivers and increase the frequency that drivers are unaware of or disregard the characteristics and road rules of Woonerven. Similarly, the U.S. has multiple road regulations that contradict those of Woonerven, such as the requirement that roads must have an unobstructed width of 6 meters (and as few turns as possible) for fire truck accessibility.

Participants and Agendas

Several groups advocate for and against Shared Space ideals. Residents of Woonerven typically support the movement and claim that design elements "make it nice for people to live here instead of nice for the cars" (Albrecht, 2019). Dutch people seeking to convert their own street organize with urban design professionals on an online network called WoonERFgoed. Government transportation agencies play a role in defining Shared Space areas by law, enforcing the traffic rules, and working closely with urban designers and communities to construct the road projects. In areas where Shared Space is normalized, drivers tend to give way to pedestrians. However, in areas where Shared Space is just emerging, drivers are mostly stubborn to the new changes. Some instances have found that overall behavioral changes are slow to come about because "if as a driver you stop to let pedestrians across you are often abused by other drivers". (Driver qtd. in UCU, 2016)

Shared Space can also displace certain groups who rely on familiar obstacles to travel, like the visually impaired and disabled population. Some blind individuals who have tried to walk in Shared Space "wouldn’t really know where the road was" and "don’t feel safe at all" (Participant 3 qtd. in Brown & Norgate, 2019) (Participant 5 qtd. in Brown & Norgate, 2019). Also, the "Say No to Shared Streets" campaign has the backing of over 20 disability organizations. Shared Space and the economy are also interwoven, as shared street design in commercial districts tends to drastically change the way people use the road. However, it is difficult to draw a single conclusion on how business owners view Shared Space. Some enjoy increased pedestrian traffic that Shared Space can bring, but some fear Shared Space will damage business from non-local customers due to reduced parking.

Conclusion

Shared Space and Woonerven are a specific example of how people are taking back car dominated streets, or "street reclaiming", a concept studied in a book of the same name by David Engwicht. They exist to fight the notion that cars are a solution to travel rather than a tool. Some mistake a tool and a solution as synonyms, however their distinction is important. A tool is used to aid in solving a problem, similar to how a carpenter uses several tools to build a house. A solution is an all-encompassing method of solving a problem. This same story of mistaking a "tool" for a "solution" can be observed in many other cases throughout history (the use of environmentally dangerous insecticides as a solution to pest control) and should be learned from in the future endeavors of our civilization (autonomous vehicles being the sole of travel). In order to expand this chapter, future contributors may want to study Shared Space efforts outside of Europe, investigate other participants with stake in Shared Space ideals, and identify parallels to the Shared Space case study where similar challenges were faced.