Pilot home zone schemes: evaluation of The Methleys, Leeds

Home Zones are residential areas where the streets are designed to be places for people, not just traffic. Their intention is to change the way that streets are used thereby improving quality of life. This is achieved through a series of works, which typically include gateway treatments, new shared road space and traffic calming interwoven with hard and soft landscaping. The Home Zone concept originates from the Netherlands. In order to assess the appropriateness of the home zones to the UK, the Department for Transport set up a pilot programme of nine home zones which included the Methleys Home Zone in Leeds. TRL was commissioned by the Department for Transport to assess the effectiveness of each pilot home zone scheme in achieving its aims. In order to determine their impact, a comprehensive 'before' and 'after' monitoring programme was devised. This included attitudinal surveys of residents both adults and children, collection of traffic flow, speed and accident data, video recording and air quality and noise surveys. This report presents a comparison of the results of these 'before' and 'after' surveys and through comparison reaches a conclusion regarding the impact the home zone has had upon resident's lives. (A)