Search

A Woonerf in Harvard Square

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy blog, October 14, 2010, Via Planetizen

Palmer Street in Harvard Square is a curious half-football-field length stretch of street. It’s not blacktop like Church Street with a double yellow line down the middle; its paving suggests a pedestrian way, though there’s no sign indicating vehicles are not allowed. Any motorist traveling down it plods along slowly. In other words, a perfect shared space, according to Ben Hamilton-Baillie, an architect from Bristol, England who specializes in new street design.
  
Streets are too often the forgotten element of the public realm, dominated by traffic engineers interested in the swift flow of vehicular traffic, and adorned with all manner of signage and warnings and flashing lights. Highways are a separate matter, but the streets in downtowns and town centers serve a number of functions, as places where pedestrians, bicycles, and cars and trucks must mix. If the aim is more livable, greener cities, being able to feel comfortable walking or riding a bike is hugely important.
 
Cities have been living with the legacy of Le Corbusier, who among others advocated the strict separation of pedestrians and traffic. Lately there have been efforts to change the paradigm. In New York City, the blur of traffic in Times Square has been replaced by tables and chairs. Many communities are engaged in traffic calming, with such  measures as bump-outs, neck-downs, speed bumps, bicycle lanes and brightly marked pedestrian crosswalks, all of which achieve some of what is known these days as “complete streets.”

Read More