Induced Demand Club

Oliver Davey, Co-Founder + Principal Design Engineer

I’ve decided to set-up a club. It’s for traffic engineers who are fed-up with the game-playing. For those who know full-well that the promises they’ve made to the public aren’t worth the pre-paid postage that their consultation responses were returned on. For those who struggle to look their Councillors in the eye when they reassure them that the proposed changes will be ‘traffic-neutral’. And it’s for those who, outside of working hours, wouldn’t wish upon their worst enemies the results of the decisions we’re routinely party to about our streets and the places we call home.
 
It’s for traffic engineers who’ve had enough of applying for funding based on the stated belief that we can reduce journey times by building more traffic lanes; or who’ve given up the pretence that insisting retail developers design their highway and car park arrangements for the weekend before Christmas will help create a place where anyone will actually want to live; or who can no longer live the lie that ‘guard’ railing is a reasonable response to road safety in our towns and cities. It’s for those who know there’s a better way; or at least hope there’s one.
 
It’s called Induced Demand Club; and the first rule is that nobody talks about it. 
 
It’s a safe place where we no longer need to pretend we possess the silver bullets for congestion, parking and road safety. And where we can discuss the massive, untapped possibilities that our streets represent for creating a better society. It’s somewhere for care-worn traffic engineers to come together and find refreshment in speaking openly about the unparalleled role that we could play in the shaping of public health, economic vitality, environmental impact and social cohesion; where we can dare to imagine the wonderful benefits that our streets could offer to all, if only we were brave enough to say these things out loud. 
 
If you’re interested, then get in touch. Just don’t tell anyone else