Final Project

http://prezi.com/qwsbf3hmv5hx/present/?auth_key=s4a4wcv&follow=hawk1opwi0y_

I chose to post this in a prezi form as opposed to the standard written form. For my project, I think that visuals convey the idea better than words alone. Feel free to comment with any questions you have regarding my project or with your opinion on whether or not this idea would work. Thus far, everyone I’ve spoken to or interviewed regarding this idea has been quite skeptical.

There are several videos in this project. I created two of them (the one with people’s ideas on how to improve an intersection and the one showing traffic in Madison). The others were found on youtube and show Monderman Shared Space Intersections. I highly recommend watching these ones, especially if you’re skeptical about these theories.

I’m sure there’s some kind of limit as to how populated an intersection can be if this is going to work. For example, Shared Space would probably not work in New York City. I do think it could work here in Madison, though. As you can see in my video(and are probably a part of every day), pedestrians, drivers and cyclists in Madison already interact quite a bit. However, they still ultimately follow the rules of right of way and of the signs.

The question of who is responsible if there is an accident came up when we discussed this in class. First of all, accidents are dramatically reduced in Shared Space intersections (see my introductory report for the statistics). Secondly, the idea of shared space isn’t to take away responsibility from people, but to give them more responsibility. Right now we have the idea that if we follow the rules, we’ll be just fine. If there are no rules, you’ll be much more cautious and whatever you do is your responsibility. Since everybody is paying much more attention, not only will there be fewer accidents, but there will be more reliable witnesses if an accident is to occur.

I think that by instituting something like this, we could reduce accidents, travel times and the amount of cars on the road (and therefore, the amount of oil being consumed). Traveling is a huge part of our day to day lives, but the system is not sustainable: we keep adding things to our roads. Less is more.  Changes need to be made. I hope this prezi provides you with a good understanding of how this works and of my plan for shared space in Madison.

Introduction

Imagine a busy intersection. Cars are lined up at the lights and their passengers are getting frustrated. Pedestrians and cyclists exploit their “right of way” and are less than mindful of cars. There is a lot of traffic and a lot of waiting at signs and lights for everyone. How does one improve this intersection so that people can get through quicker and there are fewer accidents? Add more signs, maybe a bridge, maybe a few extra lanes for traffic?

“Solving” problems usually involves adding more things to the environment. Adding something else to the mess may solve one problem but it usually creates another. It goes back to the expression “less is more”. Only when the environment is de-cluttered, can problems begin to get solved. In this case, what if all of the signs, lights, crosswalks, lines on the road and curbs were taken away?

Hans Monderman, a Dutch civil engineer, implemented this in the Netherlands and it is now spreading throughout Europe, South Africa, Australia and Japan. In 1982 Monderman was made the road safety inspector in Oudehaske, Friesland. There were budget cuts made to traffic calming measures and there had been several recent traffic fatalities in this town. To save money and increase the safety of the streets, Monderman eliminated the signs and other “street furniture”, creating a flat surface where people in all modes of transportation had to negotiate their own right of way.  “Exceeding even his own expectations, Monderman found that the plan cut vehicle speeds by fifty percent. The absence of all traffic controls increased drivers’ awareness and thus forced them to slow down.” (“Hans Monderman”). In Haren, the Netherlands, the same system was applied. The number of accidents at one intersection dropped by 95 percent. The polie officer in charge of traffic planning, Peter Hilbricht said. “You can’t deny the numbers, half the world is eager to see what’s going to happen with this program.” (Whitlock, Craig).

With no implements in place to organize the traffic, the expected result would be chaos. However, travellers (pedestrians, motorists and cyclists alike) make up a self-organizing system. They do not need the signs, lights or lines. Traffic moves slower, but civilians get where they are going faster and are happier in doing so (Clarke, Emma).

 

New York Times journalist, Sarah Lyall, in 2005, visited Drachten, a town in the Netherlands with Monderman engineering:

“Not only was it virtually naked, stripped of all lights, signs and road markings, but there was no division between road and sidewalk. It was, basically, a bare brick square.

“But in spite of the apparently anarchical layout, the traffic, a steady stream of trucks, cars, buses, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians, moved along fluidly and easily, as if directed by an invisible conductor. When Monderman, a traffic engineer and the intersection’s proud designer, deliberately failed to check for oncoming traffic before crossing the street, the drivers slowed for him. No one honked or shouted rude words out the window.

‘”Who has the right of way?” he asked rhetorically. “I don’t care. People here have to find their own way, negotiate for themselves, use their own brains.”’

 

When people drive, they tend to only pay attention to what they are doing and not to what everyone else is doing. People do not interact or make eye contact with others. When talking about busy roads with many signs, Mondeman said: “All those signs are saying to cars, ‘this is your space, and we have organized your behavior so that as long as you behave this way, nothing can happen to you’. That is the wrong story”

Monderman’s ideas emphasize the concept of “shared space. Shared space relies on environmental context—in this case, a street where cars and pedestrians are equal, and the design tells the driver what to do (Lyall) —to influence human behavior (Barnett, Erica). Human interaction causes a safer and more pleasant place for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists (“Hans Monderman”). “The driver in shared space becomes an integral part of the social and cultural context. As a result, behavior is controlled by everyday norms of behavior, which means drivers slow down, take more care and start to rely on eye contact and human interaction.” (Clarke, Emma).

 

With this comes the concept of “home zones”, places where people feel comfortable and at home. The time spent traveling in between these “home zones” is a “dead zone”, lost time left unaccounted. These home-zones need to be extended so that they begin to include the roads where people travel. The success of the expansion of home-zones is reliant, not only on effective and well thought out plans, but also on an entire community’s involvement (“Concept”). This means that people need to interact more as they move between places they feel comfortable. “Through the syntheses between traffic and public interaction we could build wonderful places that can tell the story of our past, the heritage and the cultural identity of place” (Monderman).

Madison, Wisconsin, being a city with over forty thousand college students, has a very high number of pedestrians and cyclists. During class changes especially, pedestrians and cyclists completely take over the streets and assume the right of way. Still, there is a lot of time wasted at stoplights and there are separate bike lanes and sidewalks. On average, there are 120,654 crashes every year in Wisconsin. 1,343 of them involve pedestrians and 1,099 involve bicycles (“Final Year Crash Statistics”). The system of transportation in Wisconsin is in need of change. By instituting Monderman’s idea of shared space, there would be fewer traffic accidents and transportation times would decrease.

 

 

 

Works Cited

Barnett, Erica. “’Shared Space’ Traffic Calming: Counterintuitive, But It Works.” World Changing: Changing Your Thinking. N.p., 4 Jan. 2008. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. <http://www.worldchanging.com/‌archives/‌007750.html&gt;.

Clarke, Emma. “Shared Space – the alternative approach to calming traffic.” TEC: Traffic, Engineering and Control Sept. 2006: 290-292. Free Webs. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. <http://www.freewebs.com/‌mjcassini/‌Shared%20Space.pdf&gt;.

“Concept.” Home Zones. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. <http://www.homezones.org/‌concept.html&gt;.

“Final Year Crash Statistics, Madison.” Wisconsin Department of Transportation. N.p., 29 Aug. 2010. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/‌drivers/‌drivers/‌traffic/‌crash/‌final.htm&gt;.

“Hans Monderman.” Project for Public Spaces. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. <http://www.pps.org/‌articles/‌hans-monderman/&gt;.

Lyall, Sarah. “Road design? He calls it a revolution.” The New York Times. N.p., 22 Jan. 2005. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/‌2005/‌01/‌21/‌world/‌europe/‌21iht-profile.html?pagewanted=all&gt;.

Monderman (1of10) – Drachten Eye Contact. YouTube. N.p., 7 Mar. 2007. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/‌watch?v=Xo3KWHqmDhA&gt;.

Whitlock, Craig. “A Green Light for Common Sense.” The Washington Post. N.p., 24 Dec. 2007. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/‌wp-dyn/‌content/‌article/‌2007/‌12/‌23/‌AR2007122302487.html&gt;.

 

Project Statement

As we begin to rely more and more on technology, we have fewer and fewer face-to-face interactions with people. I was on the bus the other day and I noticed one of the advertisements said “Avoid uncomfortable eye contact. Keep reading this sign.” Have we gotten to the point where we go out of our ways to avoid interaction and eye contact with other people?

I’d like to do a project based on the work by the Dutch civil engineer, Hans Monderman. He had the idea that we have these “home zones”, places where we feel comfortable and at home, but the time we spend traveling in between these “home zones” is a “dead zone”. We don’t normally account for this time, but it’s lost time.

In order to solve this problem, Monderman took away all the traffic lights, signs, speed limits, sidewalks and bike lanes in an intersection to create the idea of “shared space”. People had to work together—make eye contact, pay attention to others, let someone ahead of them, pay attention to their own driving—in order to get through town. When we drive, we’re kind of mindless. We expect that if we follow the “rules” that are put in place, we should be ok.

In this project, I intend to examine the work and ideas of Monderman and see how they might apply in Madison. I’m hoping to have a focus group with some other students and see what they think of the whole idea. I’d also like to create a video project showing how traffic and transportation moves in Madison and how it could be different.