chaordic confidence in the streets!

[Proteus Communications]

Hello to all.

 

Here is a neat article about an innovative way of dealing with traffic that
I think is a beautiful metaphor for the practice of open space (OST, opening
space, being in open space.).  

 

In Holland and Denmark, some traffic engineers decided to do away with all
traffic controls (these are extraordinarily courageous traffic engineers you
can be sure)  at some very hazardous intersections and streets-no traffic
lights,  no traffic signs, lines, sidewalks, barriers or any other external
controls.  Vehicles and pedestrians were left to figure it out for
themselves.  The result-no more accidents in intersections that previously
had regular accidents and yearly fatalities. 

 

Here are a few excerpts from the article, a link to the article, and a word
document with a readable version of the article.

 

Cheerio,

 

Kathryn Thomson

Proteus Communications

Bowen Island, BC

Someday, after mastering winds, waves, tides and gravity, we shall harness
the energies of love. 

And then, for the second time in the history of the world, humanity will
discover fire." 

Teilhard de Chardin

 

 

 * * * * * 

One of the characteristics of a shared environment is that it appears
chaotic, it appears very complex, and it demands a strong level of having
your wits about you, says U.K. traffic and urban design consultant Ben
<http://www.hamilton-baillie.co.uk>  Hamilton-Baillie, speaking from his
home in Bristol. The history of traffic engineering is the effort to
rationalize what appeared to be chaos, he says. Today, we have a better
understanding that chaos can be productive.

 

 * * * * 

Reversing decades of conventional wisdom on traffic engineering,
Hamilton-Baillie argues that the key to improving both safety and vehicular
capacity is to remove traffic lights and other controls, such as stop signs
and the white and yellow lines dividing streets into lanes. Without any
clear right-of-way, he says, motorists are forced to slow down to safer
speeds, make eye contact with pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers, and
decide among themselves when it is safe to proceed.

 

 * * * *

Rejecting the idea of separating people from vehicular traffic, it's a
concept that privileges multiplicity over homogeneity, disorder over order,
and intrigue over certainty. In practice, it's about dismantling barriers:
between the road and the sidewalk, between cars, pedestrians and cyclists
and, most controversially, between moving vehicles and children at play.

 

The article can be found at:
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/000765.html

 

 

 


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