Home zone — a different order, not just a lower speed
| What the rule says | Why it is so | Where it goes wrong | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The pedestrian has the whole road | Pedestrians may use roads inside a home zone across their FULL WIDTH. Not at the edge, not on a path — across the whole width. | This is the core provision of the whole chapter: it reverses the roles. Outside the zone the carriageway belongs to traffic and the pedestrian steps aside; inside it does not. | Looking for a crossing or a pavement. There are none, and that is not an omission by the council: the home zone is designed that way. |
| 15 km per hour | Inside a home zone no faster than 15 km per hour — against 50 as the main rule inside a built-up area (art. 20). | Fifteen is roughly a cyclist's pace. At that speed a child stepping out from behind a car can still be seen and avoided; at thirty it cannot. | Confusing it with a 30 zone. These are two different things: a 30 zone is an ordinary road with a lower limit, a home zone is a different order. |
| Parking inside the home zone | Motor vehicles may park inside a home zone ONLY in places marked or indicated as parking spaces. | Follows from art. 44: a parked car takes away width that belongs to the pedestrian and at the same time takes away his view. | Applying the ordinary test “as long as I obstruct nobody”. Inside a home zone that is not the test: there is a bay, or it is not allowed. |
| Leaving the home zone | Joining an ordinary road from a home zone is a special manoeuvre: you give way to ALL other traffic, including from the left. | Art. 54 lists the special manoeuvres with “such as”: the list is not exhaustive, and leaving a home zone belongs by nature with “joining the road from a driveway”. | Applying the priority-to-the-right rule because it looks like a junction. It is not one: in a special manoeuvre “priority from the right” does not exist, you yield to everyone. |
| Home zone that is also a blue zone | If the home zone is also designated a disc-parking zone, the ordinary rules on the parking disc apply as well (arts. 25 and 26). | The two regimes do not exclude each other but STACK: first the bay (paragraph 1), then the disc (paragraph 2). | Thinking one replaces the other. Parking in a bay but forgetting the disc is still wrong — and the other way round just as much. |
| Where the home zone starts and ends | Sign G5 starts the home zone and G6 ends it. Art. 62 obliges road users to obey these signs. | The home zone is an AREA, not a street: it runs on across junctions until G6, just like a zone (art. 66). | Assuming the home zone ends at the next side street. Without G6 you are still in it, with all that follows: 15 km/h and the pedestrian across the full width. |
The law itself
- RVV1990 art. 44
«Voetgangers mogen wegen gelegen binnen een erf over de volle breedte gebruiken.»
- RVV1990 art. 45
«Bestuurders mogen binnen een erf niet sneller rijden dan 15 km per uur.»
- RVV1990 art. 46 lid 1
«Het is bestuurders van een motorvoertuig verboden binnen een erf te parkeren anders dan op parkeerplaatsen die als zodanig zijn aangeduid of aangegeven.»
- RVV1990 art. 46 lid 2
«Indien het erf tevens is aangeduid als parkeerschijf-zone, zijn ten aanzien van het parkeren van voertuigen artikel 25 en 26 van toepassing.»
- RVV1990 art. 54
«Bestuurders die een bijzondere manoeuvre uitvoeren, zoals wegrijden, achteruitrijden, uit een uitrit de weg oprijden, van een weg een inrit oprijden, keren, van de invoegstrook de doorgaande rijbaan oprijden, van de doorgaande rijbaan de uitrijstrook oprijden en van rijstrook wisselen, moeten het overige verkeer voor laten gaan.»
- RVV1990 art. 20
«Binnen de bebouwde kom gelden de volgende maximumsnelheden: a. voor motorvoertuigen 50 km per uur;»
- RVV1990 art. 62
«Weggebruikers zijn verplicht gevolg te geven aan de verkeerstekens die een gebod of verbod inhouden.»
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