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July 26th

On our second and last day with Merideth started with a change of plans. Rather than have a lecture then go on a bike ride we decided to go on the bike ride first so we could beat the heat. Thank God.

On the bike ride, we learned a lot about the infrastructure of the city and some of the recent projects put into place. What struck me most was the banana and the chips cone intersection design. In this instance, the designers realized that they should design in a way that facilitates peoples natural behavior, because if they do that there is a high chance of people following the design and its rules. On this particular intersection, the designers opted to shrink cycling protective barriers to the shape of a small banana and widen part of the bike lane to make it look like a cone. This added 33% more space for cyclists without having to actually enlarge the intersection. This made the packed house that was the Mr. Visserplein intersection run a lot more smoothly, so smoothly, in fact, the designers won awards for this simple change.


Before 

After

The idea of designing for human behavior makes so much sense. Not to say you can't teach new behaviors and give new ideas through design, but it seems much easier and often offers better results when you design for what you know people want and will do. It's important to remember that you don't always have to overthink things, and sometimes the simple solution is the best. This can be true in design or just life in general. 

When we got back to The University of Amsterdam we had a bit of a decompress and sharing session. during this time we shared what we had learned the previous day on the scavenger hunt and today on the tour. Then the question of how we can make a change back home was asked. This is a scary question because I personally believe the American culture is so centered around expansion and grandeur it'd be nearly impossible to change the ideals. Then Meredith showed us a video about how one "crazy nut" can start a movement. It starts with a man dancing without a shirt on by himself at a music festival, he is eventually joined by another person who he promptly teaches how to do his dance moves. After a bit, the new guy calls his friends over, this brings even more people until it's eventually a group over 100 people dancing like the original "crazy nut" and this all happened within 5 mins. The moral of the story is that one person can start a movement, and getting that second person or group is the most important part because then it's no longer so taboo. This really stuck with me and gave me some hope, especially if we can teach our generation and the one below it some of the things we learned on this trip.  


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