Hans Monderman

Infobox Person
name = Hans Monderman


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birth_date = birth date|1945|11|19
birth_place = Leeuwarden, Friesland
death_date = death date and age|2008|1|7|1945|11|19
death_place =
death_cause = Prostate Cancer
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nationality = Dutch
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known_for = Shared space, road engineering
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occupation = Traffic engineer
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title = Manager of integration programme (spatial, landscape and traffic planning)
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spouse = Tineke
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children = Leonard and Johan
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footnotes = [cite news
title=Hans Monderman
work=Obituaries
author=Ben Hamilton-Baillie
date=2008-02-02
url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2251163,00.html
publisher=The Guardian
accessdate=2008-02-05]

Hans Monderman (November 191945 – January 72008) cite news
title=Hans Monderman
work=Obituaries
date=2008-01-11
url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3167372.ece
publisher=Times Newspapers Ltd
accessdate=2008-02-05] [cite web
title=Condolence register, Hans Monderman
url=http://www.shared-space.org/default.asp?ObjectID=24828
publisher=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. [cite web
title=Letter of nomination, Award for Environment
url=http://www.ecoplan.org/wtpp/general/nomination-letter-monderman.htm
publisher=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. [cite web
title=Signing Off: Visionary traffic planners
url=http://www.urbanitebaltimore.com/sub.cfm?issueID=52&sectionID=4&articleID=748
publisher=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 or "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." [cite web
title=Letters of endorsement for Hans Monderman
url=http://www.ecoplan.org/wtpp/general/monderman-support.htm
publisher=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 [cite web
title=Environment nominees - NEW FELLOWS
url=http://www.wtn.net/2005/summit/finalists.html
publisher=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. [cite web
title=Presentation webcast, Hans Monderman
url=http://www.wtn.net/webcast/2005/summit/day1/hmonderman/index.html
publisher=2005 World Technology Summit]

References

* [http://www.ecoplan.org/wtpp/general/monderman-details.htm#bio A brief biography] New Mobility Agenda
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2251163,00.html Obituary in] "The Guardian"

*cite web
year=2005
url=http://www.artofwealth.net/2005_01_01_archive.html#110462064586488631
title=Go slower to move quicker. In praise of Hans Monderman
work=The Art of Wealth blog

*cite news
author=Sarah Lyall
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/22/international/europe/22monderman.html?ex=1264136400&en=df658c80f6f9ed20&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland
title=A Path to Road Safety With No Signposts
publisher=New York Times
date=2005-01-22

*cite journal
last=McNichol
first=Tom
year=2004
month=December
title=Roads Gone Wild
journal=Wired
issue=12.12
url=http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/traffic.html

*cite video
people = Hans Monderman
year2 = 2006
month2 = January
title = Tour of Shared Space in Drachten
url = http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_videos&search_query=monderman%20tequio&search_sort=video_date_uploaded&search_category=0&search=Search
format = YouTube
medium = Video, 10 parts
publisher = tequio
accessdate = 2008-02-22

*cite video
people = Hans Monderman
date2 = 2007-11-13
title = Designing Shared Space
url = http://www.urbannous.org.uk/udlhm1.htm
format = mov
medium = Video, 57:33
publisher = Urban Design London
accessdate = 2008-02-22
id = Masterclass 7

Notes