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January 25, 2005
By our bootstraps
Thanks to my friend Kevin Harris for bringing my attention to the work of a noted Dutch pioneer of road design, Hans Monderman, reported in the New York Times.
Monderman enthuses about changing the way we use open spaces shared by people both in and out of vehicles. He favours stripping away the road signs and markers and creating areas where people are forced to think about where they are and behave accordingly. Apparently his ideas can have a dramatic effect.
You can read more about Monermann in Wired magazine here .
The NYT article also mentions a British exponent of new ways to manage our streets, Ben Hamilton-Baillie. His company web site has useful articles - and some pictures that can show us what's possible here in Bishopthorpe. With Ben's permission, here is an illustration of what is possible.
"CLEVEDON TERRACE, BRISTOL
A typical residential street intersection - large areas of asphalt that are neither safe nor useful. The priority markings ignore the urban context. The proposals will create a small distinctive piece of public space whilst permitting continued movement by cars and larger vehicles."
For more examples - take a look here.
Any thoughts on this - please make your comments known!
Posted by martin at January 25, 2005 7:33 PM
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