Help a design student create an information system for cyclists

[nikkiscott]

Hi

I want to create an information system for cyclists to find their way around cities as one of my major projects (I am a Graphic Product Innovation student at London College of Communication) I will be designing a system/campagin etc for London, if you currently cycle or have cycled in another city insight to that would also be helpful.

If you could please take a few minutes to answer some questions on the link bellow:

http://onyerrbike.tumblr.com/

Any ideas/insights/comments about cycling in London, routes you take, aspects of journey you wish were easier etc would also be appriciated...

Thank you for your time and help

Nikki Scott

www.nikkiscottdesign.com

 

[jimboalee]

If you give an infinite number of touch typists an infinite number of typewriters for an infinite amount of time, they will never finish an information book for cyclists.

 

[jimboalee]

In other words, if you start a Wiki site for information on cycling, you have a job for life.

 

[nikkiscott]

Haha that's not what I have in mind! I want to find out about how you navigate around the city, do you read road signs, use maps, apps or just just head in the general direction...

I want to create a way of navigating around the city to help cyclists new to London find the best routes and help the daily commuters find routes they were not aware of or the option of a less congested route etc. But most of all Londoners who are new to cycling the confiedence in a system to help guide them.

 

[mark barker]

I want to create a way of navigating around the city to help cyclists new to London find the best routes and help the daily commuters find routes they were not aware of or the option of a less congested route etc. But most of all Londoners who are new to cycling the confiedence in a system to help guide them.

Pick another city! London is well sign posted with pretty lanes painted all over the place... Go to a city that hasn't already had loads spent on cycling infrastructure and I'm sure your ideas will get a much warmer response...

 

[dellzeqq]

Nikki. Take this on the chin. Graphics have absolutely nothing to offer cycling, and, if they did, there are too many people doing it for free for it ever to pay. Add to that routefinding is fantastically oversupplied. It's a bust. Sorry.

 

[nikkiscott]

Thank you for your insight dellzeqq.


The project at the moment has no set outcome in my mind, it might be a route planner, it could bit bits of string or bread crumbs! I am certainly not making the assumption that signage will improve a cyclists journey, I am just provoking the discussion. I am doing this for a final major project at university so technically I am doing it for free (well paying to do it you could even say.) So I have no concern's with it being a money making scheme.



I am doing my dissertation on the same topic. Iwant to evaluate the wayfinding methods cyclists use in a city, such as London.I want to explore whether a universal sign system would be more effective incontrast to the existing diverse and complex methods currently in operationaimed at the cyclist, driver and pedestrian. I am focusing on observing and evaluating the existingwayfinding systems for cyclists and what makes them effective by interviewingcyclists. I aim to contrast these research findings with the common problemsthat cause wayfinding systems in a city to fail and find out why. I then want to compare othercities such as Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam to assess the priority andinformation given cyclists.


At the moment all your input and comments are much appriciated. Thank you to everyone who has responded so far.

 

[Aperitif]

Finding ones way about - simply.
Nikki - good luck with your project, I'm sure you'll get 'further along the road' the more info that you collect!
As a traditional oldie with a rather myopic need for direction, I would like to see someone grab London's streets by the scruff of the neck and give them a good shake.
Let's have REGULAR physical signeage for street names. REGULAR positioning at ends, junctions and turnoffs. At REGULAR heights (let's kick off with three metres high eh?) REGULAR typeface and simple to understand direction finding. You ride, you look, you see, you turn - always looking for clues in the same places (end of the street, 3m in the air).
As dellzeqq says, electronic and printed matter is at saturation point, and if one is bike seated, I would rather chug along than get off and tinker with a map. Anyone who has contemplated a 'You Are Here', and wanted to punch it, knows exactly what it is all about!
Regular direction signeage 'this direction is North/South/East/West' as a feature might be helpful for general direction finding. And while you're on the case, lets get shot of all the detritus littering the roadways - all the extra grey poles that Sam and Les from the council have concreted into the middle of a pavement, with a directional arrow marked 'Superstore' etc...
I don't know how much experience you have of routefinding, (not so much commuting as that is a 'learnt', personal exercise) but I think research might lie in the physical, real-time ponderings of the voyager in any given city.

I'll go and look at the questionnaire now

 

[ThePainInSpain]

What is it with University bods, don't they know how to use the space bar. Or is this some new form of the English language that has passed my by in my dotage.

This is the second time I've commented on this, the missives becomes very difficult to read and complicated to understand.

I use Firefox browser with the spell check on, so hopefully I have a chance of being somewhere near legible.

 

[Davidc]

Nikki

I use google maps, Via Michelin, or similar if I don't know where I'm going. I print that, and if I need more and don't already have one I buy a cheap map.

Any more information is provided by signposts or by asking people

If I needed more I'd buy a pocketable or bar mounting sat nav

I'll cycle more in London when I can hire a Boris Bike, but see no problem arising with navigating that either.

It isn't difficult. Last time I was in Paris, in October, I found my way around on a Velib using a free giveaway map from a firm at the Gare du Nord, and last time in Brussels borrowed a map from my brother and found my way round on one of their versions of a Velib. For London I have my own Central London A to Z which seems to have all the streets in it in the right places.

If your system was free I might use it, but would probably stick with the A to Z.

Sorry to be negative, but as with every student idea on here this year you're re-inventing the wheel.

 

[ColinJ]

What is it with University bods, don't they know how to use the space bar. Or is this some new form of the English language that has passed my by in my dotage.

They have picked up a mutation of a virus which originally caused people to use full stops instead of question marks and exclamation marks! (And to type 'my' when they mean 'me'.)

 

[dellzeqq]

They have picked up a mutation of a virus which originally caused people to use full stops instead of question marks and exclamation marks! (And to type 'my' when they mean 'me'.)

new keyboard time!.?

 

[slowmotion]

Please don't spoil my fun! I just love getting lost on my bike...anywhere...

Personally, I prefer getting lost with soggy paper maps. The idiots use those plastic things that suddenly lose power, fail to charge, and give a lot of grief.
They then spend the whole evening in a comms. gangbang "sharing" their silly problem about a self-inflicted dubious technology.
Good luck anyway.

 

[mcshroom]

Hi Nikki.

I don't cycle in cities often (due to living in the middle of nowhere ) but when I do I tend to plan out the route in google maps or bikehike. Looking in major cities I also trust Opencyclemap to be reasonably thorough and so will use that as well.

When I travel into Warrington sometimes for work, there is a very useful map designed for the council with help from the local cycle campaign. It colour-codes roads depending on the level of traffic and speeds that his traffic tends to use so you can pick a quieter route by following blue or green roads if you are not confident about riding in traffic.

 

[nikkiscott]

Thank you for all your input everyone! I appreciate the time some of you have given with your detailed insight!

The space bar problem is not my keyboard and as I checked the post before I hit send I think it is a forum problem due to the fact I copied some of the text from a similar reply I had already sent to someone to save time. I apologise for the horrid mess of a post anyway!