DOUBLE DUTCH DELIGHT
I knew one day my double Dutch writing to newspapers would wake up people, so I am delighted to read in the Fremantle Herald that the Woonerf concept is going to be tried in Fremantle. The idea is to set up virtual living areas, like sofas, chairs, tables, etc. in the middle of the cappuccino strip, that will automatically slow traffic down and creates a better quality of sharing the street between pedestrians and cars. Trials have been very successful in Holland, Germany, Canada, the UK and also in Victoria.
# More good news comes today that the Pricess May Park will be handed over to the City of Fremantle. This will hopefully also mean a new long lease for the very family friendly Clancys Fish Pub.
# Proposed new development at the back of the old synagogue near the markets need to be scrutinised in detail though, so show us the plans please!
# I was told a worrying development yesterday, about regular break-ins at the Royal George hotel, where thieves steal the copper piping, including gas pipes, which poses a real fire threat to the old building and historic archives stored there.
Roel Loopers
WOONERF. Woon means living in the Dutch language, and erf is traditionally a forecourt where the family gathers on a farm (boerderij).
FREOVIEW - Fremantle's only daily 
WOONERF: One of the traffic ideas people have gotten excited about is Woonerf. This is a Dutch traffic planning idea. In areas where there’s the intersection of lots of kinds of traffic (car, pedestrian, bike, destinations and through traffic) you have to deal with the contention for the streets. Traditionally this is approached as a complicated system of rules and right-of-ways. There’s spaces for each mode of transportation, lights to say which is allowed to go when (with lots of red and green arrows), crosswalk islands, concrete barriers, and so on.
A problem with this is that a person can only pay attention to so many things at a time. As the number of traffic controls increases, the controls themselves dominate your attention. It’s based on the ideal that so long as everyone pays attention tothe controls, they don’t have to pay attention to each other. Of course, if there’s a circumstance the controls don’t take into account then people will deviate (for instance, crossing somewhere other than the crosswalk, or getting in the wrong lane for a turn, or the simple existance of a bike is usually unaccounted for). If all attention is on the controls, and everyone trusts that the controls are being obeyed, these deviations can lead to accidents. This can create a negative feedback cycle where the controls become increasingly complex to try to take into account every possibility, with the addition of things like Jersey barriers to exclude deviant traffic. At least in the U.S., and especially in the suburbs or in complex intersections, this feeling of an overcontrolled and restricted traffic plan is common.
Copenhagen retail street
So: Woonerf. This is an extreme reaction to traffic controls. An intersection designed with the principles of Woonerf eschews all controls. This includes even things like curbs and signage. It removes most cues about behavior, and specifically of the concept of “right of way”. Every person entering the intersection must view it as a negotiation. The use of eye contact, body language, and hand signals determines who takes the right of way. In this way all kinds of traffic are peers, regardless of destination or mode of transport. Also each person must focus on where they are right now, and not where they will be a minute from now; they must stay engaged.
LikeLike