Hans Monderman (19 November 1945 – 7 January 2008) was a Dutch road traffic engineer and innovator. He was recognised for radically challenging the criteria used to evaluate engineering solutions for street design. His work compelled transportation planners and highway engineers to look afresh at the way people and technology relate to each other. His design approach is the concept of "

shared space Shared space is an urban design approach that minimises the segregation between modes of road user. This is done by removing features such as kerbs, road surface markings, traffic signs, and traffic lights. Hans Monderman and others have sugg ...

", an

urban design Urban design is an approach to the design of buildings and the spaces between them that focuses on specific design processes and outcomes. In addition to designing and shaping the physical features of towns, cities, and regional spaces, urban d ...

approach that seeks to minimise demarcations between

vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), ...

traffic Traffic comprises pedestrians, vehicles, ridden or herded animals, trains, and other conveyances that use public ways (roads) for travel and transportation. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic ...

and

pedestrians A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In modern times, the term usually refers to someone walking on a road or pavement, but this was not the case historically. The meaning of pedestrian is displayed wit ...

, often by removing features such as

kerb A curb (North American English), or kerb (Commonwealth English except Canada; see spelling differences), is the edge where a raised sidewalk or road median/central reservation meets a street or other roadway. History Although curbs have ...

road surface marking Road surface marking is any kind of device or material that is used on a road surface in order to convey official information; they are commonly placed with road marking machines (also referred to as road marking equipment or pavement marking eq ...

traffic sign Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of or above roads to give instructions or provide information to road users. The earliest signs were simple wooden or stone milestones. Later, signs with directional arms were introduce ...

s, and

regulations Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. Fo ...

. Monderman found that the traffic efficiency and safety improved when the street and surrounding public space was redesigned to encourage each person to negotiate their movement directly with others.

Shared space

Monderman took it as a given that for several generations, motorised traffic will remain an essential feature of European economies and their spatial fabric; in effect, he has taken this as his technical and policy target—a problem that simply will not go away. Against this background, he reviewed technologies and practices of street design, and stripped away those he felt insufficient or counterproductive. One of the better known of Monderman's accomplishments is the Dutch ''

Woonerf A woonerf () is a living street, as originally implemented in the Netherlands and in Flanders ( Belgium). Techniques include shared space, traffic calming, and low speed limits. The term "woonerf" has been adopted directly by some English-la ...

'', or "Living Street" project, which originated from a basically unplanned citizen initiative in

Delft Delft () is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, and The Hague, to the northwest. Together with them, it is part of both the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolita ...

in 1968.

Career highlights

* 1969: Province of

Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...

, civil engineer project leader infrastructure constructions and controller traffic safety * 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 Friesland shared space approach * 1996 part-time traffic planner municipality of

Smallingerland Smallingerland (; fy, ) is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the province of Friesland in the Netherlands. Population centres Boornbergum, De Tike, De Veenhoop, De Wilgen, Drachten (main town), Drachtstercompagnie, Goëngahu ...

(Friesland) * 1999 to 2002 policy consultant province of

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of t ...

(integration of traffic and landscape) * 2002 programme manager of integration programme (spatial, landscape, and traffic planning) in

Drenthe Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Nove ...

Honours

Monderman received an Honorary

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

degree in traffic planning for outstanding achievements in the fields of traffic engineering,

, and

project management Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. T ...

. In 2005 he was nominated for the World Technology Award for the Environment and gave a presentation on his work in a speech to the formal conference and awards ceremony in October 2005 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

References

External links

A brief biography
New Mobility Agenda
About Shared Space
Shared Space Institute, Drachten, The Netherlands

''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

''
"The Traffic Guru" by Tom Vanderbilt
'' The Wilson Quarterly'' * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Monderman, Hans 1945 births 2008 deaths Sustainable transport pioneers People from Leeuwarden Deaths from prostate cancer Dutch civil engineers