How street design helps reduce road accidents

UN Global Road Safety Week takes place from May 10 to 14.

A few weeks ago, a road accident went viral on the Internet. It showed a car speeding into a blind intersection when a motorbike crashed into the side of the car. Due to the strong impact, the biker was thrown up in the air and over the car. The biker was seen lying on the sidewalk with a badly injured leg.

The accident could have been prevented if only both parties had taken precautions as they approached the blind corner.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, there were 11,096 deaths in 2021, up by 39 percent from the deaths recorded in 2011. Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among Filipinos 15 to 29 years old. It is also a major killer among children.

Many of these deaths occur on urban roads and are preventable accidents caused by behavior as a result of street design.

Creating safe streets

Local governments in collaboration with designers, engineers and regulators are responsible for creating safe streets. As long as street designs encourage high speeds and prioritize automobiles and other motorized vehicles over pedestrians and other vulnerable users, streets will never be able to provide safe environments.

Many traffic fatalities are linked to street design. With the addition of speed, the conditions become more dangerous.

Some common causes of traffic accidents and fatalities include:

* Sidewalks that are not usable, narrow or non-existent which force pedestrians to walk along the road exposing them to danger.

* Pedestrian crossings that are non-existent or are inadequate.

* Lack of protection: Wide, multi-lane streets without refuge spaces expose pedestrians, especially the elderly, to moving vehicles for longer distances as they cross the street.

* Large intersections that are often designed for dangerous, high-speed turning. Lack of visibility results in poor navigation and assessment of different road users’ movements.

One effective strategy to address the problem of speed which makes road conditions dangerous is by adopting what is known as traffic calming.

What is traffic calming?

Traffic calming, first developed in Germany, involves implementing design features to slow vehicles as they move through urban, commercial, and residential neighborhoods.

It makes humans a priority over cars, something that runs counter to the idea that streets are made primarily for vehicles to travel on, and to get to their destination as fast as possible.

A traffic calming project is aimed at reducing and minimizing the risks posed by vehicles. It involves implementing road design features and strategies to cut down traffic speed and volume and allocate more space for pedestrians and cyclists. At lower speeds, the surroundings are more visible to the drivers and they have more time to react to unexpected events and can stop in a shorter distance.

Narrow lanes reduce speeds and minimize crashes on city streets by reducing the right of way and making drivers wary of traffic and adjacent users.

A traffic calming project can be something as simple as minor modifications on a specific street to a more comprehensive engineering redesign of a road network.

Traffic calming is “founded on the idea that streets should help create and preserve a sense of place, that their purpose is for people to walk, stroll, look, gaze, meet, play, shop and even work alongside cars—but not [be] dominated by them.”—Project for Public Spaces.

Examples of traffic calming strategies

Lane narrowing

Narrow lanes reduce speeds and minimize crashes on city streets by reducing the right of way and making drivers wary of traffic and adjacent users. Use the additional space for pedestrian space, cycle facilities, or green infrastructure.

Corner radius

Narrowing corner radii reduce vehicle turning speeds as well as pedestrian crossing distances. Minimizing the size of a corner radius is critical to creating safe and compact intersections.

Buildings and trees

Buildings at the right of way with articulated facades and windows indicate that a street is in an urban environment, not a highway.

Gateway treatments

Gateway treatments alert drivers that they are entering a slower area. This treatment may include signage, entry portals, speed tables, raised crossings, and curb extensions.

Mini roundabouts (or rotundas)

Mini roundabouts are round islands at intersections that serve to both reduce speeds and organize traffic, routing vehicles around the island rather than directly across the intersection.

Major considerations before traffic calming is implemented:

Is the area used by emergency, service vehicles, and school buses?

Is the area a residential, commercial, retail, entertainment, or other?

Are the users, the elderly, disabled people, and children?

Buildings at the right of way with articulated facades and windows indicate that a street is in an urban environment, not a highway.

Will the area be undergoing improvement?

Which roads are potential areas for the traffic calming?

Many countries such as the USA, the UK, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand and others have planned schemes to carry out the traffic calming process.

When road accidents occur, the usual response is to blame the driver, the cyclist or the pedestrian. It is about time we realize that our roads without traffic calming features may be the silent killer that we need to focus on. It is now up to decision makers, technical experts and communities to start saving lives.

Human life is our greenest resource, right?

Source: Inquirer

How To Design a Great Hybrid Office

Designing a hybrid office starts with understanding what people want from their office. Our guide shares how to design.

Research shows that offering a variety of spaces drives more employee engagement. It provides them with more opportunities to do their best work every day. At the same time, it also increases the sense that their company cares enough to deliver this to them.

Social

More remote work also means that there is more isolation and loneliness. Feeling isolated while working from home is the biggest concern people identified, and the top reason to return to the office is to connect with co-workers. Research shows that people miss contact with coworkers the most from the physical office.

People want to have a sense of belonging at work. This is not only good for their well-being, but it also helps business results. A strong sense of community is the top indicator of people’s productivity. It also impacts their engagement, innovation, and commitment to the organization. Google even mentioned community as a top reason to continue to invest in physical offices.

People gather in different types of spaces and have “casual collisions.” They are the places where employees join before, during, and after work. This includes community spaces, lounges, pantries, coffee shops, outdoors, and entertainment spaces.

Together, they can help people interact with each other in a more impromptu, casual way. As Thomas Heatherwick, a leading office designer, said: “No Skype chat can replicate the “chemistry of the unexpected” that you get in person.”

Meet

In the past months, we have proven that online collaboration is possible. Still, many feel it’s usually best done at the office.

This is because trust is a critical ingredient for successful collaboration. And trust builds easier in person. The best collaboration happens when we can walk up to someone. It’s also when we have access to the right tools and resources.

Salesforce’s Chief People Officer shared about their post-COVID workplace earlier this year. He said: “To start, we’ll be redesigning our workspaces over time as community hubs. This accommodates a more hybrid work-style. Gone are the days of a sea of desks. Instead, we’ll create more collaboration and breakout spaces. This is to foster the human connection that can’t be replicated remotely.”

Meet spaces come in five categories. They are: Share & Learn, Collaborate, Brainstorm & Innovate, Converse, and Connect. These spaces allow employees to use their office for what they can’t do (well) at home. From group training to in-person one-on-one, Meet spaces are critical in the new hybrid office.

Focus

Of course, focused work is important as well. In fact, it’s one of the key reasons people come to an office nowadays.

But, in a true hybrid office, focused work no longer happens at one’s own desk. Flexible or hot desks are a better choice to avoid lots of underutilized workspaces, especially when the company pays for them, whether they use them or not.

Hot desks are often arranged in proximity to the social areas. Companies do this to try and keep down the amount of space they have to rent. This defeats the purpose of having a focus area.

Desks are better placed in an open yet quiet area for people to do focused work. In larger offices, “neighborhoods” of desks can appear in various zones. This gives individual employees the choice of what works best for them.

Having open space for people to sit and a flexible working schedule means spaces can get overcrowded. Companies can solve this in two ways: by partnering with a flexible office provider. This gives them access to a workspace on an on-demand basis. And ensure that companies pay for space only when they need it.

Second, they can tap into a desk booking system called hoteling software. Companies can use hot desk booking platforms, Operating Systems for flexible workspaces. These platforms allow employees to book space so the company knows when to halt bookings.

Source: FlexOS