Hans Monderman (November 191945 – January 72008) ["Hans Monderman", Obituaries, Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008-01-11. Retrieved on 2008-02-05. ] [Condolence register, Hans Monderman. Shared Space project.] was a Dutch road traffic engineer and innovator. He was recognized for
radically challenging the criteria by which engineering solutions for street design are evaluated. His work compelled transportation planners and highway engineers to look afresh at the way people and technology relate to each other.[Letter of nomination, Award for Environment. 2005 World Technology Awards.]
His most famous design approach is Shared Space, also known as designing for negotiation or Shared Streets. Monderman found that the traffic efficiency and safety of urban streets improved when the street and surrounding public space was redesigned to encourage each person to negotiate their movement directly with others. Shared Space designs typically call for removing regulatory traffic control features (such as kerbs, lane markings, signs, and lights) and replacing intersections with roundabouts.[Signing Off: Visionary traffic planners. Urbanite Baltimore.]
The "Monderman Model"
Monderman took it as a given that motorized traffic will remain an essential feature of European economies and their spatial fabric for several generations -- and in effect has taken this as his technical and policy target: a problem that simply will not go away. Against this background, he reviewed all the technologies and practices that make up the street scene, and one by one stripped away all those which are showing themselves to be insufficient to get the job done or even counter-productive. It is worth noting that Monderman\'s accomplishments have deep roots. One of the better known is the Dutch Woonerf of "Living Street" project that had its origins in a basically unplanned citizen initiative in Delft in 1968.
Ben Hamilton-Baillie, who is putting some of Monderman\'s ideas to work in Britain, has written: "What is so remarkable about the man is that he has achieved such a transformation in thinking from the basis of a traffic engineer (not a profession famed for its profound thinking and original analysis). Through remarkable persistence, patience and professional commitment he has managed to put in place well over 100 "shared space" schemes, transforming the urban and rural landscape of his native Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe. I have never met a man so generous with his time, so modest and unassuming about his achievements, and so humane in his application of technology to the benefit of everyday human society." [Letters of endorsement for Hans Monderman. 2005 World Technology Awards.]
Career highlights
- Since 1969 as a civil engineer project leader infrastructure constructions and controller traffic safety at the Province of Fryslân
- From 1979 consultant traffic safety at Regional Traffic Safety Commission, (accident analysis, road engineering, speed reduction measures); from then on developing and bringing into practise on several spots in Province of Fryslân Shared Space approach.
- From 1996 part time traffic planner municipality of Smallingerland (Fryslân)
- 1999 to 2002 policy consultant province of Groningen (integration of traffic and landscape)
- From 2002 programme manager of integration programme (spatial, landscape and traffic planning) in Drenthe.
Honours
Monderman received his Honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree in Traffic Planning for outstanding achievements in the field(s) of traffic engineering, urban design, consultancy, and project management.
In 2005 he was nominated for the World Technology Award for the Environment
[Environment nominees - NEW FELLOWS. 2005 World Technology Summit.]
and gave a presentation on his work in a speech to the formal conference and awards ceremony in October 2005 in San Francisco.
[Presentation webcast, Hans Monderman. 2005 World Technology Summit.]
See also
References
Notes
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
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