LANDSCAPING & EXTERNAL WORKS
Changing the urban landscape for the mobile generation
People have become glued to their mobile devices, but is the urban landscape well-suited to swathes of distracted walkers? Jonathan Goss of Townscape Products explores how the streetscape is being adapted to make it safer
centre street, their faces dimly illuminated by their handheld devices – a daily occur- rence we are all too familiar with. Occasionally we witness an absent-minded pedestrian collide with an unassuming item of street furniture – they look around in embarrassment, we try our best to hide our laughter and life goes on. To add to this, the fusion of virtual and real worlds with the launch of apps such as Pokémon Go has raised real safety concerns as people worldwide become so engrossed in gaming that they are completely unaware of their surroundings, causing many more embarrassing and even dangerous colli- sions. So is the streetscape prepared for this new breed of pedestrians?
P A landscape that communicates
Although handheld technology is seemingly a hindrance when it comes to oblivious pedestrians dodging static obstacles that line the streetscape, technol- ogy on the ground is already evolving, transforming street furniture from ordinary to intelligent.
Could street furniture become so advanced that it communicates warnings of upcoming bins and bollards to a phone? Modern upgrades to the streetscape could be a sign of such things to come. Last year, it was announced that the
UK’s first ‘smart’ Wi-Fi pavement was to be installed in Chesham, Buckinghamshire by Virgin Media. With street furniture offering a signal up to maximum speeds of 166 Mbps, this would provide around 21,000 people with unlimited free Wi-Fi up to 80 m away. More recently, Hull City Council has
awarded local business Connexin a 10-year contract to deliver 50 MB of free Wi-Fi to users across the city each day through the use of street furniture.
As the streets and indeed items of street furniture become more high-tech, they could provide a means of alerting pedestrians to upcoming dangers. Preoccupied pedestrians not only face injury through collisions with street furni- ture, but risk serious accidents with vehicles, cyclists and motorcyclists. In one example of a municipality attempting to
A Graphic Concrete art wall created for Kirkby-in-Ashfield town centre
combat this, road signs in Stockholm are already warning pedestrians to pay atten- tion and look up from their smartphones.
Solar bollards
Designed to illuminate public footpaths and dimly lit areas, the solispost bollard, powered by UV light, provides two lighting levels – a continual low level
icture the scene: an endless stream of pedestrian commuters weaving amongst each other down a city
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ADF OCTOBER 2016
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