User Profile

Christof

[email protected]

Joined 1 year, 10 months ago

Reader of all sorts of fiction, and non-fiction mostly about urbanism, technology, or anything else that piques my curiosity.

For non-book related tooting, you can find me at @[email protected]. And I sometimes write on my personal blog at amble.blog

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Christof's books

Currently Reading

Movement (2022, Scribe UK) No rating

Our dependence on cars is damaging our health — and the planet’s. Movement asks radical …

But it feels important to share this lesson from the Netherlands: while bicycle lanes can make life in cities better, they can also easily reinforce the idea that streets are designed for fast-moving traffic. If there is no debate on what public space is for, they may simply become part of conventional car logic.

Movement by  (Page 202)

Movement (2022, Scribe UK) No rating

Our dependence on cars is damaging our health — and the planet’s. Movement asks radical …

The idea of a 30km/h limit came to us from Germany. Put a 30km/h sign on a German road and the locals will stick to it. It’s not the same here.

Movement by  (Page 188)

According to André Pettinga. But let me assure you, almost nobody actually only drives 30km/h here in Germany, at least not nowadays. Traffic rules are more and more a mere suggestion to German drivers.

Movement (2022, Scribe UK) No rating

Our dependence on cars is damaging our health — and the planet’s. Movement asks radical …

Victims of road violence come by car to an event commemorating victims of road violence, and no one sees how crazy that is. It's just a case of 'there's no alternative'. We can send rockets to Mars, we can clone animals, and we can electrify the whole world. But transforming traffic is beyond us.

Movement by  (Page 131)

Movement (2022, Scribe UK) No rating

Our dependence on cars is damaging our health — and the planet’s. Movement asks radical …

I bite my tongue. It feels as if these victims have been punished twice: first by the tragedy itself, then by the way society talks about it, putting the onus on vulnerable road-users to be more careful. This mother is really saving children's lives – it may genuinely help if people remain alert when they're out and about. But why has no one here said it's insane that it is so easy to die in the streets around your home, the streets where you hang out, the streets you walk or cycle through on your way to wherever you want to be?

Movement by  (Page 129)

The author reflects as she's attending a yearly meeting for traffic accident victims and their families left behind.

Movement (2022, Scribe UK) No rating

Our dependence on cars is damaging our health — and the planet’s. Movement asks radical …

But the rationale for this rule is that a road user with a car is in a privileged position the moment they get behind the wheel; they can go faster. It's only fair for this privilege to bear a price. By reversing the burden of proof, the Dutch – in contrast to the Americans – opted to protect a person who is not operating a dangerous vehicle in public space from those who are.

Movement by  (Page 106)

Netherlands' liability law automatically assigns a car driver 50 per cent liability, when the victim is a child up to the age of 14, then automatically 100 per cent.

Movement (2022, Scribe UK) No rating

Our dependence on cars is damaging our health — and the planet’s. Movement asks radical …

The traffic liability law gradually acquired more substrance through court judgments. In the last quarter of the 20th century, for instance, the Netherlands Supreme Court rules that in the event of a collision between a motor vehicle and a non-motor vehicle, or with a pedestrian, the motorist automatically bears 50 per cent liability. In collisions involving children up to the age of 14, the motorist's liability rises to 100 per cent, regardless of the degree of responsibility of the victim. That is the rule today.

Movement by  (Page 105 - 106)

Movement (2022, Scribe UK) No rating

Our dependence on cars is damaging our health — and the planet’s. Movement asks radical …

'In the mid-1960s, the Ministry of Transport and Water Management set up its own traffic engineering service. This produced a manual called Motorway Design Guidelines , a Dutch version of the Highway Capacity Manual. Then they came out with the Non-Motorway Design Guidelines, which was based on the first manual. See how it works?'

Movement by  (Page 94)

Marcus Popkema from the Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in Zwolle