Contrarian: Hans Monderman
Making things look riskier can make them safer?
You'll find context for this post, which is part of a short series, here.
In 2006, I met Hans Monderman on a foggy day in the Dutch town of Drachten, which he had helped improve. There, he gave me walking and driving tours of the town, while explaining the Traffic Calming process he had convinced them to implement.
You can watch the ten short videos I posted to YouTube after my visit here. There's also a lovely mini-documentary about traffic calming in the British town of Poynton here.
There are so many useful lessons in Hans's story. I just get to give them a quick impressionist sketch in this 4-minute clip. Look for:
- Some safety techniques don't actually make things safer.
- We often try to remove risks, but making risks more palpable can work better.
- When weighing counterintuitive decisions, leaving time for minds to shift matters. Deep change takes time.
- Treating people on streets as citizens, not merely drivers and pedestrians, raises trust.
- Design from Trust requires thoughtful design.
- It can also rebuild community.
Which of these points is most interesting to you?
Next up: Contrarian Elinor Ostrom.
As you'll see in this short series, Contrarians are masters of rethinking constraints. They are also the foundations of Design from Trust.
If you read this far, a treat: In my online Brain, you'll find all my Contrarians here, where you can see them in their greater context.
This article is cross-posted on Substack here, Medium here and LinkedIn here. It's also here in my Brain.