Monday 14 January 2013

TRANSPORT


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.
                                    http://lcc.org.uk


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. 
                                          http://www.livingstreets.org.uk  


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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