Home Zone: Improving the quality of life in residential streets

Abstract

Before the necessity of using vehicles arises as the main way of transportation, traffic was very calm in cities. Streets were areas for learning where children explored environments around them (Roger, 2002; Mackey, 2008; Carver et al., 2008). As usage of vehicles increased, particularly after World War II, streets lost their main role as a multi-use space where different types of activities used to take place. Appleyard (1983) declares that in many communities, streets are overdesigned for the traffic that they have to carry. This not only changes the face of cities, but also it imposes heavy damages to social, cultural, and environmental aspects of residents’ lives (Ben-Joseph, 1995). In his investigations from 1960 to 1981 on residential streets, Appleyard finds out that social interactions among residents living in heavy traffic streets are lesser than one third of those of residents living in low traffic streets. This illustrates the impacts of traffic on human lives (Appleyard, 1981) (See Figure 1). Harmful effects of over-number vehicles on streets force urban designers and planners to find a solution in order to reduce traffic influences on human lives (DFT, 2006). Pedestrians and vehicles have been side by side for a long time on streets. With regards to their relationships four patterns are recommended (Gehl, 1985): Privilege of vehicles over pedestrians (vehicle-oriented) Full Separation of vehicles and pedestrians Privilege of pedestrians over vehicles (pedestrian-oriented) Vehicles removal Advantages and disadvantages of these patterns can be found at Table 1. According to the table and also considering the impossibility of vehicles removal from human life, it seems that the most logical and