Page 44 - TT Magazine Aug-Sep 2018

MOBILITY

was judged by its level of accessibility prepared to change the conversation the defined performance indicators.
to low-income and limited-mobility around autonomous vehicles, they We can mitigate the physical separation
populations. Imagine if vehicles were in turn may accomplish what their of the road space (typically curbs).
tactile and engaging, inviting you to predecessors could not: to improve Space can be allocated by using less
touch, to sit, to listen, to smell. Imagine the holistic experience of travel for permanent and obtrusive measures,
if safety, efficiency, and cost were just all people and across the entire multi- such as lights imbedded in the surfaces
the lowest common denominators, not modal network. What do our streets and sensor communication systems.
the primary ambition. look like then? To begin with, we This gives us the ability to scale roads
Change the metrics, and can take away a lot of the vehicular on a short-term basis, prioritizing
accessibility for people and activities
you change the results navigation objects that clutter
intersections and sidewalks, or at the that add to the overall street (and
This is not a utopian expectation. In very least make them multi-functional. travel) experience.
the 1960’s, the City of Copenhagen This naturally frees up space for e.g. These are just a few simple examples
started measuring the success of its trees, benches, or commercial activity of the reality we could achieve. But in
streets by the volume of pedestrians; – things that welcome people, not order to fully leverage the potential,
today they have one of the world’s cars. many bright minds from a multitude of
best pedestrian networks. In 2008, backgrounds must be brought together
New York City started measuring the Designing adaptable street to complete the vision, starting by
ratio of public space to population environments redefining success in mobility.
density and income; today, more than We can consider paving systems
sixty new plazas have been created in that contribute to the street’s energy * With permission from Siemens AG
underserved neighborhoods. balance (e.g. via induction charging) Camilla Siggaard Andersen is a user experience
The lesson? Change the metrics, and aesthetic qualities, all the while consultant at Arup Digital Studio in London. She has
a background in architecture, urban technology, and
and you change the results. If we are monitoring its own success in meeting town planning.

NEWS PLUS

Mathematicians calculate the safest way home for pedestrians

aths and computer science Prevention, researchers have shown Salford, Sheffield, Swindon and York.
researchers at Cardiff how a novel system for scoring the Of those 15 cities, Liverpool was
MUniversity have devised a safety of an area can successfully ranked as having the most unsafe
way of scoring the safety of any given predict the likely number of road roads whereas Bath was deemed to
area using sophisticated mathematical casualties. have the safest.
algorithms, which they believe The computer algorithm takes into The researchers believe this novel
could easily be implemented into a account a number of factors, such as system could be of great value to city
navigation mobile app to help reduce the types and number of crossings,
road traffic casualties. the type of street, the possibility of planners and developers, specifically
when assessing how changes to a
At the moment, apps such as Google jaywalking and the speed limits of city’s infrastructure may affect road
Maps do not account for pavements each road in a given area. safety, such as the pedestrianizing of
and will only give people the quickest The scoring is done automatically roads or the changing of speed limits.
route to their destination. These by simply feeding in the raw data
apps do not take into account the from a map of any given area, and In the nearer term, the team are
characteristics of pavements and roads has been tested on 15 cities in the UK looking at developing an app which
and the dangers associated with them. -- Bath, Bedford, Blackpool, Bristol, people could use to tell them the safest
In a new study, published in Coventry, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, possible route to their destination.
the journal Accident Analysis and Manchester, Nottingham, Reading, Source: Science Daily

44 August-September ’18 / TrafficInfraTech www.trafficinfratech-com-500653.hostingersite.com