A home zone (or play street) is a living street (or group of streets) as implemented in the United Kingdom, which are designed primarily to meet the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, children and residents and where the speeds and dominance of cars is reduced. Quiet lanes are a similar concept in rural areas.
The Highway Act 1835 banned the playing of football and street games on the highway [1] with a maximum penalty of forty shillings (£177.62 as of 2015 [2] ). [3] In 1860 Taverner John Miller, MP for Colchester reported to the House of Commons that in the previous year 44 children had been sent to prison in London and Middlesex for failure to pay fines for playing in the street, highlighting the case of a 12-year-old boy sent to prison for 5 days for playing rounders. [4] In 1925 Nancy Astor MP noted in the Commons that "There is no more pitiable sight in life than a child which has been arrested for playing in the street". [5] By 1935 over 2,000 young people under the age of seventeen are prosecuted for playing in the streets. [6]
In 1934 Leslie Hore-Belisha became Transport Minister and initiated a number of road safety schemes in response the rising number of Road Casualties in Great Britain; these included the zebra crossing and a proposal to introduce play streets to the UK, which had been successfully operating in the USA. [6] Following a trial of 200 Play Streets in Manchester and Salford from 1936, the Street Playground Act 1938 allowed councils to designate streets as playgrounds where games could be played.
In 1957 the Transport Minister was asked in the Commons if he was aware that playground streets regulations were being ignored and were frequently used by through traffic; the Minister responded saying that the size of Playground Streets signs had recently been increased in size to make them more prominent. [7] Play street legislation was included in section 49 of the Road Traffic Act 1960. [8] [9]
By 1963 there were 750 such streets around the country, [10] but there was also growing conflict between the needs of children and the needs of motorists. In that year Ernest Marples, the Transport minister, was asked in the Commons if he could make a statement about the issue of car parking in play streets; he responded by indicating that he had only occasionally received complaints about parking issues in play streets. [10] In the same year a petition was presented in the Commons from residents objecting to the illegal use of their playground street in Westminster being used by through-traffic and by people parking cars [11] By contrast, the minister was also questioned in the Commons about a recently approved Playgrounds Street Order for a number of streets in Newcastle which was reported to have been opposed by all residents. [12] In 1976 Trevor Huddleston, the Bishop of Stepney commented that Britain appeared to prefer motor cars to children 'by cluttering up Play Streets with parked cars'. [6] By the 1980s Playgrounds Streets had been largely forgotten; there were streets which retained the signage and accompanying traffic restrictions, however residents' parked cars left no space for play. [6]
The main enabling legislation for home zones is given in section 268 of the Transport Act 2000 which allows the creation of 'use orders' which are orders that 'permit the use of a road for purposes other than passage' such as social interaction and children's play. [13] In 2002 Farley Bank, a cul-de-sac in Hastings was designated as a Play Street giving children traffic-free space for play between 8am and sunset. [6]
The same act introduced the concept of the Quiet Lane which allows similar social uses in rural roads, [14] following pilot projects in Kent and Norfolk. [15]
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These principles are similar to those of the shared space type schemes, which apply also to a wider range of environments and follow closely the pattern of the Dutch woonerf schemes.
Encouraging children's play is an important aim of many home zone schemes. Home zones have a very good safety record, but are not primarily designed as road safety schemes.
Home zones are encouraged by the UK Government as part of new residential areas. Although it is not possible for prospective residents to be involved in the design of new streets, steps can be taken to involve them in their maintenance and management. Residents must be need to be consulted by the local Traffic Authority on the precise uses that can take place on the street (specified through a 'Use Order') and the appropriate speed of traffic on the street (specified through a 'Speed Order') before the home zone can be legally designated and signed.
Home zones often involved the use of shared space, where the street is not strongly divided into exclusive pedestrian and traffic areas. Concerns have been expressed over the inability of blind and partially sighted people to use shared space streets. Providing a clear route for pedestrians that is kept free of traffic, by using street furniture for example, is one way of meeting the needs of the visually impaired.
Well-designed home zones often include features such as benches, tables and play equipment to encourage social interaction. Street trees and areas of planting, ideally maintained by residents, will often feature. On-street parking also forms part of the layout in most schemes.
Traffic speeds are kept low – with a typical target speed being around 20 km/h (10–15 mph) – through the overall design of the street and features such as sharp changes of direction for traffic and narrowings where only one motor vehicle can pass at a time. Traditional traffic calming features such as road humps can also be used, but should be integrated into the design rather than being added as an engineered afterthought.
Examples of UK practice include Staiths South Bank in Gateshead, which at over 600 homes was the largest newbuild home zone development in the UK at the time it received planning consent. Most contemporary UK schemes have involved public realm works to existing streets in older Victorian housing areas, often to meet regeneration or traffic calming objectives.
The Dartford–Thurrock River Crossing, commonly known as the Dartford Crossing and until 1991 the Dartford Tunnel, is a major road crossing of the River Thames in England, carrying the A282 road between Dartford in Kent in the south and Thurrock in Essex in the north.
Traffic calming uses physical design and other measures to improve safety for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists. It has become a tool to combat speeding and other unsafe behaviours of drivers in the neighbourhoods. It aims to encourage safer, more responsible driving and potentially reduce traffic flow. Urban planners and traffic engineers have many strategies for traffic calming, including narrowed roads and speed humps. Such measures are common in Australia and Europe, but less so in North America. Traffic calming is a calque of the German word Verkehrsberuhigung – the term's first published use in English was in 1985 by Carmen Hass-Klau.
Park Lane is a dual carriageway road in the City of Westminster in Central London. It is part of the London Inner Ring Road and runs from Hyde Park Corner in the south to Marble Arch in the north. It separates Hyde Park to the west from Mayfair to the east. The road has a number of historically important properties and hotels and has been one of the most sought after streets in London, despite being a major traffic thoroughfare.
The A303 is a trunk road in southern England, running between Basingstoke in Hampshire and Honiton in Devon via Stonehenge. Connecting the M3 and the A30, it is part of one of the main routes from London to Devon and Cornwall. It is a primary A road throughout its length, passing through five counties.
The Blackwall Tunnel is a pair of road tunnels underneath the River Thames in east London, England, linking the London Borough of Tower Hamlets with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and part of the A102 road. The northern portal lies just south of the East India Dock Road (A13) in Blackwall; the southern entrances are just south of The O2 on the Greenwich Peninsula. The road is managed by Transport for London (TfL).
The M2 is a 26-mile (42 km) long motorway in Kent, England, and was built to bypass a section of the A2 road in Kent, which goes through the Medway Towns, Sittingbourne, and Faversham. It provides an alternative route to the Port of Dover, which supplements the M20 motorway located further to the south. The terminal junctions of the M2 intersect with the A2, which come together to form a 62-mile (100 km) long trunk road from London to Dover.
The A12 is a major road in Eastern England. It runs north-east/south-west between London and the coastal town of Lowestoft in the north-eastern corner of Suffolk, following a similar route to the Great Eastern Main Line until Ipswich. A section of the road between Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth became part of the A47 in 2017. Between the junctions with the M25 and the A14, the A12 forms part of the unsigned Euroroute E30. Unlike most A roads, this section of the A12, together with the A14 and the A55, has junction numbers as if it were a motorway.
The South Circular Road in south London, England, is a major road that runs from the Woolwich Ferry in the east to the Chiswick Flyover in the west via Eltham, Lee Green, Catford, Forest Hill, Dulwich, Tulse Hill, Clapham Common, Clapham Junction, Wandsworth, Putney, Barnes, Mortlake and Kew Bridge. Together with the North Circular Road and Woolwich Ferry, it makes a complete ring-road around Central London and is a former boundary of the Ultra Low Emission Zone. The South Circular is largely a sequence of urban streets joined together, requiring several at-grade turns, unlike the mostly purpose-made carriageways of the North Circular. As a result, it is frequently congested.
Pedestrian zones are areas of a city or town restricted to use by people on foot or human-powered transport such as bicycles, with non-emergency motor traffic not allowed. Converting a street or an area to pedestrian-only use is called pedestrianisation.
The M11 link road protest was a campaign against the construction of the M11 link road in east London in the early to mid-1990s. "A12 Hackney to M11 link road", as it was officially called, was part of a significant local road scheme to connect traffic from the East Cross Route (A12) in Hackney Wick to the M11 via Leyton, Leytonstone, Wanstead and the Redbridge Roundabout, avoiding urban streets.
The car-free movement is a broad, informal, emergent network of individuals and organizations, including social activists, urban planners, transportation engineers, environmentalists and others, brought together by a shared belief that large and/or high-speed motorized vehicles are too dominant in most modern cities. The goal of the movement is to create places where motorized vehicle use is greatly reduced or eliminated, by converting road and parking space to other public uses and rebuilding compact urban environments where most destinations are within easy reach by other means, including walking, cycling, public transport, personal transporters, and mobility as a service.
Operation Stack was a procedure used by Kent Police and the Port of Dover in England to park lorries on the M20 motorway in Kent when services across the English Channel, such as those through the Channel Tunnel or from the Port of Dover, are disrupted, for example by bad weather, industrial action, fire or derailments in the tunnel.
The United Kingdom has a well developed and extensive network of roads totalling about 262,300 miles (422,100 km). Road distances are shown in miles or yards and UK speed limits are indicated in miles per hour (mph) or by the use of the national speed limit (NSL) symbol. Some vehicle categories have various lower maximum limits enforced by speed limiters. A unified numbering system is in place for Great Britain, whilst in Northern Ireland, there is no available explanation for the allocation of road numbers.
The Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, which provided powers to regulate or restrict traffic on UK roads, in the interest of safety. It superseded some earlier legislation, including the majority of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1967. The Act is split into 10 parts covering 147 sections, it also includes 14 schedules.
Decriminalised parking enforcement (DPE) is the name given in the United Kingdom to the civil enforcement of car parking regulations, carried out by civil enforcement officers, operating on behalf of a local authority. The Road Traffic Act 1991 (c. 40) provided for the decriminalisation of parking-related contraventions committed within controlled parking zones (CPZ) administered by local councils across the UK. The CPZs under the control of the local councils are also referred to as yellow routes and they can be easily identified with yellow lines marked on the roads with relevant time plates. Councils employ parking attendants to enforce their CPZs directly.
Motoring taxation in the United Kingdom consists primarily of vehicle excise duty, which is levied on vehicles registered in the UK, and hydrocarbon oil duty, which is levied on the fuel used by motor vehicles. VED and fuel tax raised approximately £32 billion in 2009, a further £4 billion was raised from the value added tax on fuel purchases. Motoring-related taxes for fiscal year 2011/12, including fuel duties and VED, are estimated to amount to more than £38 billion, representing almost 7% of total UK taxation.
The Road Traffic Act 1930 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom introduced by the Minister of Transport Herbert Morrison.
The Road Traffic Act 1934 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom introduced by the Minister of Transport, Leslie Hore-Belisha. The Act was made in a year in which there had been a record numbers of road casualties.
Road speed limits in the United Kingdom are used to define the maximum legal speed for vehicles using public roads in the UK.
Cycling infrastructure is all infrastructure cyclists are allowed to use. Bikeways include bike paths, bike lanes, cycle tracks, rail trails and, where permitted, sidewalks. Roads used by motorists are also cycling infrastructure, except where cyclists are barred such as many freeways/motorways. It includes amenities such as bike racks for parking, shelters, service centers and specialized traffic signs and signals. The more cycling infrastructure, the more people get about by bicycle.
football for the common man was being suppressed, notably by the 1835 highways act which forbade the playing of football on highways and public land - which is where most games took place
The House would be surprised to hear that under that Act, no fewer than forty-four children were sent to prison in the metropolis last year, and since the commencement of this year twenty-five had been sent to prison. He would mention particularly two or three of these cases. George Dunn, aged twelve years, was sent to gaol for five days for playing at a game called "rounders" in which the boys stood in a ring and knocked a hall from one to another.
There is no more pitiable sight in life than a child which has been arrested for playing in the street. Of all the pitiable sights that I have seen that is the most pitiable. Though these children may be fined, we stand convicted. The other night, I went to see 50 of these children, tiny children some of them, ranging from 10 years of age,
Mr. Page asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation whether he is aware of the dangers to children in streets designated as "play streets", when those streets are used by through traffic and whether he will take steps by means of the Highway Code or otherwise, to draw the attention of drivers to the fact 387 that it is an offence to drive a vehicle in a play street except when calling at premises in the street
Local authorities were advised in a Ministry of Transport Circular No. 787 dated 12th July, 1961, to consider using the powers to make Street Playground Orders under section 49 of the Road Traffic Act, 1960, as a contribution to the safety of children in urban areas where there is insufficient recreational space
Mr. Spriggs asked the Minister of Transport what evidence he has of car parking in official play streets; and if he will make a statement on the working of the Street Playgrounds Act, 1938
I wish to present a Petition to this honourable House on behalf of 20 residents in Passmore Street in the City of Westminster. The Petition relates that this is an official street playground, but children play there at risk of their lives because of the abuse by motorists, and parkers of cars
Mr. R. W. Elliott asked the Minister of Transport whether he is aware that in confirming the Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Street Playgrounds) (No. 1) Order, 1963, he ignored the objections of nearly all of the residents of the three streets named in the order