Green Building: Going…Going…Green!

Jump To: << Previous 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Next >>

In the Netherlands these low speed, pedestrian oriented streets are called "Woonerfs". Roughly translated, Woonerf means "residential district". The entire distance from the front of one house to the front of the house on the opposite side of the street is considered to be a residential district in which pedestrians and automobiles have equal rights of passage and use. To balance the unnatural power of the automobile, the Neighborhood Streets and Living Lanes in HomeTown are designed so that they can only be driven on at safe, slow speeds. Various "Woonerf" type "traffic calming" devices are being installed to accomplish this objective - traffic circles, raised pedestrian crossing platforms, neck downs, tight curves, etc.

This picture was taken from the median of a high speed arterial looking at the main entrance and the main collector street into a community in Bonn Germany of about 5,000 people. The truck is parked, you can see that the safety platform and neckdown is one car width wide.

This picture shows the same collector street at a neckdown and raised linear platform that bisects the pedestrian only shopping street.

Jump To: << Previous 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Next >>