Bikes on the schedule at industrial design conference
Posted by Jonathan Maus (Editor-in-Chief) on April 25th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
How can the Industrial Designers Society of America’s 2008 Western District Conference help improve biking in Portland?
Well, like many events that happen here (whether they’re directly related to bikes or not), our favorite form of transportation has managed to work its way into the schedule.
parking will be one focus of the
workshop.
On Sunday, the last day of the three-day conference, attendees will take part in a design workshop titled, Yield! Bikes and cars, can’t we all just get along?.
The workshop was organized by the Oregon chapter of the IDSA and organizers hope participants will, “discuss and create options to create safer roads and eliminate bike-to-bike and bike-to-car accidents.”
According to Steve Chaney, a local industrial designer who helped organize the workshop, conference-goers will be presented with two design problems.
The first will deal with how to improve on-street bike parking. Chaney hopes the exercise helps answer these questions:
- How can the shape of the bollards and reflectors [on the bike corrals] enhance the full experience?
- How can we get more bikes in?
- What other ideas do the teams have for bike parking in congested areas?
The next problem will attempt to improve how we can design complete streets, yet still allow emergency response vehicles quick and easy access. The designers will try and create and/or improve upon various traffic calming methods to find a solution that works for everyone.
A jury panel of local experts will offer insights into the problems and will help discuss the solutions and ideas. The panel will include: Greg Raisman, a traffic safety guru at PDOT; Bill Stites, owner of Stites Designs; Sacha White of Vanilla Bicycles, Natalie Ramsland of Sweetpea Bicycles; and others.
I’ll be there too, so stay tuned for a look at what solutions to these problems America’s best industrial designers can come up with.
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April 25th, 2008 14:18
lucky!
April 25th, 2008 16:40
Wow, these are great questions. I'm impressed. Please let us know what solutions they come up with.
April 27th, 2008 19:44
I can't wait to hear what comes out of this. Industrial Designers will be looking at this from a completely different angle compared to traffic safety people. Maybe they'll discover something completely new.
May 1st, 2008 11:06
Very cool that the IDSA Western district is doing this. I am looking forward to hearing about the discussion.
July 5th, 2008 11:58
[...] Bike Portland mentioned the 2008 IDSA Western District Conference in a post yesterday. Designers at the conference will take part in a workshop titled, Yield! Bikes and cars, can’t we all just get along? The participants will be presented with two design issues; improving on street parking and the design of complete streets. Read more about the event and the questions they hope to address at the Bike Portland post. I am looking forward to seeing some of the solutions they come up with in the workshop, and I will be sure to pass those along. [...]