Wall Street Woonerf, Asheville NC, May 2021

Asheville's version of the European woonerf (a street designed to be comfortably shared by bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorists) is on Wall St in the heart of the town center. It is, of course, my favorite street in AVL. The City needs to duplicate this on other town center streets, as Wall St is well known as a lovable, sociable, convivial street to those who walk the town center.
Take note of several things in this vid I just shot on my last day as a resident in Asheville: First, note the three singers "busking" at the beginning. Such street performers are an "indicator species" for a well-designed, slow-speed street that attracts a large number of strollers. The presence of buskers is a sure sign of a wonderful street design. with lots of people walking.
Second, note the brick and cobblestone which, in part, provide romantic, attractive, slow-speed charm.
Third, note the active outdoor tables and chairs encroaching into the street to further narrow the street to a human scale and slower car speeds.
Fourth, notice how the narrow human scale of the street is allowing pedestrians to comfortably walk in the middle of the street -- almost carefree -- even though the street is being used at the same time by moving cars.
Fifth, take note of the motorists driving down the woonerf'd street. They are driving slowly and attentively. They drive in this safe way because the human-scaled street design obligates them to do so. This design is the key to street safety (and sadly, the opposite of how conventional traffic engineers have designed streets for the past century) The conventional design paradigm is the "forgiving street," which has the objectives of "forgiving" excessive motorist speeds and inattentiveness. The obvious result (oddly, not obvious to conventional traffic engineers) is that we have an epidemic of dangerous, inattentive driving -- driving at excessive speeds.
The only thing I would change in this otherwise excellent design is I would make it a two-way "give-way" street. Fortunately, that sort of improvement can be added easily in the future. All that is lacking is leadership.
All of these elements exemplify a high-quality, people-oriented street where pedestrians (and cyclists) are primary and motorists are secondary. By making pedestrians rather than cars the design imperative on Wall Street, the City is furthering the achievement of a wonderful, life-giving town center space. This is precisely what a town center needs for health and place-making.
Tragically almost no American city has this sort of street. It needs to be duplicated far and wide for American better cities.