I
attended a transport lecture where four industry professionals came
in to talk about their work.
On
your bike
Stuart
Dring from London Cycling Campaign (LCC) came in to talk to us about
the charity and the different campaigns they have.The LCC make sure
they get more space for cyclists and pedestrians. He stated a
interesting fact about cars that more and more people do not own cars
but this isn't encountered into government planning and cyclists are
left out of consideration.
There
are many reasons why people do not cycle and they are working to
combat these factors. The main reason that people do not use their
bicycles more is due to safety, they are currently under going a 2013
lorry campaign, to make lorry drivers more aware of cyclists. One of
the tactics used is to get lorry drivers to cycle around lorries to
make them more aware of the experiences of a cyclist. In holland they
do not encounter as many problems as more people cycle including
lorry drivers, so they are more aware of the issues have to deal
with.
If
the infrastructure is not designed well then cycling is not safe as
it was not factored in when it was originally designed, take elephant
and castle roundabout for example.
He
is looking for a new bike tag design to advertise events for the LCC,
he said that spoke cards and band ties fall off and they are looking
for something that can be easily printed off in the office and made
of paper. I think this is a interesting project for the group to
maybe look into.
An
important thing I took away from Stuarts lecture was to test designs
out on your target audience, establish who they are and design for
them.
Street talk
Living
Streets is a charity that campaigns for pedestrians and making our
streets safe, attractive and enjoyable for the public to use. Anna
Collins talked to us about walking as a transport and the many
benefits; economical, social, environmental, physical and mental. The
charity has in the past campaigned to introduce the driving test,
introduction of the highway code and had the first zebra crossings
successfully installed.
She
asked to talk to the person next to us and come up with what we
thought were the barriers of walking. We came up with disabilities,
elderly, time, access, safety, practicalities, perception of
distance, wayfinding, navigation, routine, luggage and partially
sighted. Anna talked about what worked to improve our streets and she
mentioned making changes to our built environments and behavioural
change.
What
I took away from this presentation was how important design was to
improve our built environment for now and the future. It impacts the
community, health, environment and travel, if the infrastructure is
sustainable it will make a big difference for the future.
Ecological literacy & perception
Dr
Jody Boehnert from Ecolabs spent time talking about visualising the
environment and issues of transport, she used many interesting
info-graphics in her presentation to illustrate this.
It
was scary to think how dependent we are on our energy infostructure
and to think about what we would do without it. Jody talked about the
impact of climate change and how we are directly impacting it. Theory
has dictated that we are entering a new geological stage called
Anthropocene. Our technology and its impacts are stronger than the
ecological forces to the world. We are effectively creating our own
imbalance, through globalisation and industry.
She
spoke of the nine earth systems that need to be in balance to sustain
life on the planet, some are approaching their threshold and they all
affect others in the diagram some of the systems include
biodiversity,climate change and chemical dispersion. Click the link
to read more from the Stockholm Resilience Centre.
What
I found interesting was how data was used as a visual metaphor and
how much quicker it was to process large amounts of information.
Ecolabs use systems thinking as a tool, it asserts that valid
knowledge and meaningful understanding comes from building up whole
pictures of phenomenon not by breaking them into parts. So by looking
at the picture as a whole rather than looking at one element that may
contribute to climate change for example. Jody has created a
eco-literacy map which has a grip on all the issues needed to
approach all the different aspects at once.
A
few things I would like to look further into from this presentation
is sustainable travel, how our travel affects pollution levels, green
house gases, transporting of oil, dependence on fossil fuels to
'fuel' travel and bio fuel an alternative that sees rainforests being
cut down.
The Greening of Illustration, Published in Varoom Magazine, August 2007
Looking
at eco labs website I found an interesting article on how
illustration is important in spreading global awareness issues.
'Illustration can, and already is, fulfilling an important role in spreading awareness of global warming issues. Thanks to its ability to make ideas visible, illustration can play a part in making change happen. Furthermore illustration provides a means of communicating the complex emotional reactions that are naturally part of dealing with such loaded information as climate change. Illustration can work to communicate an immediate and a holistic representation. We need this ability of visual languages to help spread an awareness of not only the science behind global warming, but the measures that need to be taken to cut our energy consumption.
'
Future Cities & smart travel
Joe
Williams from Sustrans spoke to us about the issues surrounding
sustainable transport. Sustrans is a charity that makes the local
environment safer and more attractive for walking and cycling.They
introduced the national cycle network and display their company in
the positive sense through their visual identity.
Joe
spoke about how climate change is seen as a luxury in hard economic
times, when people do not have much money they do not have the luxury
to choose the 'right' washing powder so the subject is often ignored.
Another
issue that linked to this was transport poverty, how people are being
priced out of transport and fuel. This leads to social isolation and
less access to healthcare, jobs and family. One of the suggestions to
tackle this has been fuel duty, taking money from car duty and
lowering the costs to public transport which in turn makes it more
expensive to drive.
I
liked their campaigns which were light hearted and got their point
across well rather than telling people what to do, I think this was
quite effective and is something I will take away with me.
Natalie Bhinder
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