Compare and contrast the modernist and flexible approaches to the ordering of traffic.
People relate to others differently when in public places and certain factors are involved with how this is dealt with to maintain social order, whether on an individual basis or an authoritative level.
Authority and power play a part in the governance of our every day to day activity and this keeps us in check to conduct ourselves in an orderly manner according to societal norms and values and people consciously or unconsciously are involved in this process.
In order to reflect on the modernist and flexible approaches of ordering traffic it is worthy to note that two men worked extensively to implement such ideology. They are Colin Buchanan, an engineer who was commissioned by the UK Government in 1961 and his role was to work on the report Traffic Towns for the Ministry of Transport (1963) (Silva, 2009, p.327) he applied the modernist approach and Hans Monderman also an engineer who started his experiment in The Netherlands in 1982 as a traffic safety officer in the region of Friesland using a flexible approach.
The modernist approach by Buchanan sited development of standardised uniform spaces commanding uniform behaviour, leaving no room for individual interpretation, explaining everything with signs and text, The government and the public authorities look after the citizens. The flexible approach of the shared space philosophy, tailor-made layouts are required for the more individualised style to emerge: every site is unique and has its own story which gives information about how the space is used. Authorities do not set general rules for citizen’s behaviour. (Silva, 2009, p. 339) This was as a result of the increasing number of cars and the need to expand our road networks to manage the volume of this increment but also to manage life in our towns designing urban space for such distribution efficiently. Buchanan created this so as the designs were standardised and the...