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All of the Woonerven are marked by special traffic signs (showing a house within a protective boundary) and most are constructed from decorative pavements. Their designed charm has helped overcome resistance from residents who feel insecure without proper sidewalks. Their moderate construction costs also have proved attractive: the price of a Woonerfis only 10% to 15% higher than routine repaving. In fact, so great has been their success that there now are some 800 Woonerven in The Netherlands, not only in pioneering Delft but also in places like The Hague and Utrecht.
The idea has spread to West Germany, where the new, livable streets are called Wohnbereiche (protected residential areas). Enthusiasm in Germany is so great that in 1979 and 1980, the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. in joint sponsorship with the Council for International Urban Liaison invited U.S. officials and citizen leaders to Delft and such German cities as West Berlin, Bonn and Essen to study the new techniques.
One of the Americans along on that jaunt was Emily Lloyd, then transportation adviser to Boston's mayor. Boston had installed a complex system of traffic mazes to discourage through traffic, with only partial success. "Some residents said it was almost impossible to find their way home," says Lloyd of the circuitous routes. She now sees the Woonerf as a way out. "It is time that people perceive when they are in a residential area, and when they are on a highway."
From Berkeley's Appleyard, however, comes a warning. "Those who wish to carry through such improvements must be aware of the difficulties," he says. "Traffic is a complex ecological system that shifts around rather than disappears. Naively held ideas and simplistic plans will only result in backlash."
Appleyard warns that any reshuffling of street patterns must be worked out with residents. He may well have in mind an experiment in his own backyard. In Berkeley, after increasing complaints of congestion in residential streets, the city in 1975 erected 41 diverters, 18 traffic circles and 300 stop signs. During the first weeks, barriers were attacked and heaved aside, drivers sneaked their cars along sidewalks and 30 stop signs were stolen. The controversy grew so fierce that two city referendums were held, with the new system finally squeaking out wins in both.
So the barriers remain in place today. Motorists still grumble and the police department remains cautious about the barriers' effectiveness, but the number of traffic fatalities dropped from twelve in 1974 to five last year. The drivers may not like all the diverters and stop signs, but Berkeley's residents have grown to love them. —By Wolf Von Eckardt.
Reported by Bob Buderi/Berkeley and John E. Yang/Boston
*In 1980 in the U.S. 46,000 child pedestrians (up to age 14) were injured by motor vehicles; 1,940 were killed.