DeLo: Woonerf #wlam

Translated as “living street,” a Woonerf is a Dutch planning concept that employs strategies like traffic calming devices and low-speed limits to encourage drivers to slow down and safely share the street with pedestrians, cyclists, and others—characteristically without raised curbs separating cars and pedestrians. Woonerf views the street as a social space, rather than just a channel for vehicular mobility, and in implementing the techniques an urban street is transformed into a social space where pedestrians are encouraged to move freely from one point to the other.

At DeLo, our design team applied the Dutch design strategy to encourage multimodal transportation and blend the pedestrian and vehicle realm. The seamless interface between the street and sidewalk gives equal priority to all modes of transportation—vehicular, foot, and wheeled. With no vertical curb bounding vehicles to the road, the street design at DeLo utilizes visual cues through hardscape patterns, planting beds, site furniture, and truncated domes as traffic calming devices. These design features increase driver awareness and compel motorists to slow down. This limitation in vehicular speed improves feelings of safety among pedestrians and promotes greater use of DeLo’s public space by transforming the street into an attractive, livable environment for an array of activities.