Home Zone hassles

Here in Uppsala, a city known all over Sweden for its bicycle culture, the new Home Zone makeover of a major thoroughfare has created mass confusion and no small amount of anxiety for pedestrians, so reports our local paper, Uppsala Nytidningen. You can read a working definition of Home Zones at activetrans.org, but according to Sweden's motor vehicle code, it's a section of street where pedestrians have priority over cars and bikes. Motorists are permitted users, as long as they drive at walking speed. This is the holy grail for some bike activists (me included), but apparently in a city where bicyclists are dominant, it scares the bejeezus out of people who walk in this section of town. They are afraid of "getting squeezed between cars and bikes," as one man on the street told the newspaper. Others are freaked out by the lack of markings. Swedes are accustomed to having markings telling them where to stand, where to go, how to proceed, when to stop ... so when these cues go missing, and people have to start thinking about these things, it seems to make Swedes feel a little uneasy. And because of all the street furniture and different pavement materials and fountains, some are lulled into thinking they are in a "walk street" - a Scandinavian concept kind of like State Street Mall, but not as depressing - so they proceed blindly walking in front of bicycles and cars. It is a little bit of a chaotic situation. It seems like it will take some time for people to feel at home in the Home Zone. Still it is one of my favorite streets to bike and walk (even better than our local walk street).