Carpet patterns final

Here are the various designs for the road carpets C1 to C5, showing position of planters and cycle racks. Each design varies slightly in order for the repeat to work out just right, and for yellow lines to fall in the right place as required by Thames Valley Police and Oxford City Works. Note that Carpet C1 will need to be substantially repaired following the city's patching, and the retro-reflective beading needs restoration as it did not adhere as it should have (we have since worked out how to fix this, some trouble was caused by rain and moisture).

Click on an image to see it bigger.

Map version 12

Some adjustments have been made since version 11 and the first works weekend. Please note the new position of carpet C3 which has shifted west by approximately 2.5m. This was done for a number of reasons having to do with comments from Thames Valley Police and Oxford City Works. For details, please register a comment on this blog and a member of the BCRA committee will answer it here.

DIY Street Works Weekend 1

From tape to tent, the first works weekend was a chance to work out nearly all the bugs from the process. Work finished at 12:30 AM in the rain. Thank goodness for the marquees. One passerby later told me that he thought it was a forensics team working late into the night trying to solve a murder on BCR. (From top to bottom): Mark Hull (BCRA Chair), Shirley Clark (BCRA Project Manager), Aidan Irwin-Singer and Will Glennerster measure up the masking for the painted 'carpet'; Will holds the measuring tape; Mark, Aidan, and Eric Brown paint in formation; Piers Clayden, Eric, and Graham Bray (BCRA Treasurer) at around 9:30PM, determined to see the job through; the youngest navvy on the job; the marquee at 11PM in the rain.

DIY Street Works Weekend 1

These photos feature Kevin Hanson, from Potters Europe, one of BCR DIY Streets' sponsors and suppliers of the high-index microbeads that give the scheme its nocturnal magic. His expertise and mucking-in assistance moved the project forward enormously, especially as he's the man who figured out a technique for evenly coating the fibreglass planters with microbeads and sand. The technique involves mixing sand and beads in a 50/50 mixture, putting the mixture into a hastily-made MDF sandpit, painting the road paint onto the planter and then quickly dipping the face of the planter into the sand/beads mixture like an ice-cream cone into a tray of sprinkles. It worked great. Genius!

DIY Street Sign-off Meeting

(Above, left to right) Finalising design details are Ted Dewan, Mark Haddon, Barrie Juniper from BCR, Dr. Jessica Pykett from Aberystwyth University taking notes and observing the process, Geoff Barrell (Oxfordshire County Council Highways and Transport Dept) and Shaun Hatton (Oxford City Works) who arranged for the potholes to be filled in just a week later.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION ONLY: Road Paint: Hycolour 193 spec

It's a bit dreary, but here's all the product info on the road paint, Hycolour 193. Much of this information is not important, but if anyone who has authorship privileges would care to edit it, all would be grateful.

Painted 'Carpet' retroreflective pattern

This is the part of the pattern that will light up at night. The green diamonds represent possible locations for the planters. The 'stealth bomber' shapes will be biased against the direction of traffic entering the street so as to suggest an oppositional flow whilst visually protecting the planters and alerting motorists.

Painted 'Carpet' Pattern

Above is the painted carpet pattern, as it will appear in locations C2, C3 and C4. The carpet at C1 will be half again as long, and there will be a doubling in length of C2 but with the narrower gaps between 'tiles' for consistency. Retroreflective beads will appear on some of the lighter coloured tiles, as per order of OCC Highways Department (the alternative was double-yellow lines being drawn around all features). No 'carpet' pattern will be intruding into the car parking spots.

In addition, as per order of the OCC Highways Department, a 3m plain strip of "Fawn" colour will bookend both ends of the street (see RC1 and RC2 on the map that's down a couple of posts before this one). This will not be a carpet pattern, but will have retroreflective beads embedded in it to make the street safer at night. This is especially important for safety, to create the separation between the 'car world' of the ranks of parked cars, and the 'wonderland' in between. As there is now doubt about whether or not the raised tables we lobbied so hard for will actually be built, this subtle coloured gateway was the solution arrived at by BCRA and OCC Highways Authority.

Schedule of works

Read through this long schedule for any details on what's happening when. It references the map below.

FINAL DIY STREET PLAN, APPROVED

Click on the map for a larger version of the final signed-off street plan for the DIY Streets. A schedule of works will be posted separately, and all residents will receive a detailed summary of which houses will be affected in what way and when, so as to plan around the moments and locations of the temporary ban on motor vehicles during the works. Volunteers from each hamlet to work on the project are desperately needed to make it a reality. Already, the St Catherine's College landscape crew have agreed to do the planting, all the committee members will be putting their oar in, volunteers from Bristol and London are eager to get started, and art technicians from MAO are being hired. But we still have many man-hours to find to make this a reality in time for Halloween. Believe me, it will be a rewarding experience. Contact Shirley Clark on shirley.clark8@gmail.com to sign up for a task, and be prepared to surrender at least a whole day's work, as there will never be an opportunity to create something like this together again.

Victorian cycle rack v9 with trellis planter buffer

Here are the final drawings of the Victorian cycle rack, currently submitted to OCC for final approval and sign off. Witney Welding will be doing the fabrication.

Schedule of BCR DIY Streets installation works

1. "Street party closures" have been requested for most weekends in October (2/3, 16/17, 23/24 and 30/31) in order for the BCRA to do the road painting, prepare planters and cycle racks, and place the trees in the planters. Formal approval to be confirmed by OCC.

Plantlock Turnstile Bollard Concept

Here is a rough idea of what an 'improved' Plantlock might look like, if paired with a bollard. This turnstile bollard actually spins in the unlikely event of an incident. The Plantlock is painted in the same livery as the Victorian Cycle rack to maintain a level of consitency. The vanes of the turnstile bollard are all retro-reflective white. This idea has been forwarded to OCC for consideration. Residents who will be using them are invited to get involved designing these, as manufacturing must begin by end September 2010 in order to be installed in time.

The bollards are inspired by existing speed control bollards at various places around Oxford. You've probably seen them if you're on a bicycle. They're the ones on Cutteslowe footbridge and at various places around the city.

Victorian cycle rack, T profile with bollard

On Sunday 5 September Ed and I dummied up the Victorian cycle rack in front of 37/39.

The "T" profile is a significant improvement on the old "H" profile in the original spec as it actually allows for more bikes to attach to it, it's more stable (and therefore does not need bolting to the street) and has a less intrusive footprint, allowing access to the sewer main as well as easier access to drives for numbers 39 and 38.

It looks a bit dumpy in the photo, but with gloss black railing paint and white retro-reflective details, it should look quite handsome. There will be a Victorian bollard in place of the plastic drain pipe in the photo.

Also bear in mind the partial arched element that rises above the western pillar will not form part of the final design (we just didn't have time to remove it from the pillar!)

Victorian cycle rack, T profile with bollard

Here is the design of the Victorian cycle rack after several back-and-forth sessions with Anthony Kirkwood at OCC as well as further consultation between 37 and 39 where the cycle rack sits in front. The design is free-standing and quite heavy, as the two vertical posts are cast iron as well as the gates. The two gates are bolted together instead of welded in order to provide 'snap points' in the event a car collides with the rack. Colour is currently spec'd as black with while reflective glass-bead paint.

We are currently waiting for final confirmation of this design from the OCC and, following a mock-up test in early September, Witney Welding Company will put the bits together.

World Without Traffic Lights

Hi - these two videos are very interesting about what happens when traffic lights are removed from junctions - very cool.

Part 1:


Part 2:

Street Planter Trial at Street party

At the Beech Croft Road Street PArty , most of the residents in our 'Hamlet' looked at the two options of Planter on view in the actual context of the street. Those present [from memory] Bim and Monika [46] , Ian and Kate [47] , Andrew and Kate [41], Sally and Tony [45], Penny and Graham [44], and Eric [48].
The unanimous decision was that the large planter was too big {and too ugly: not in keeping with the architecture of the street}. The smaller Gothic design planter did not please everyone with its look, but all agreed it was a more appropriate size.

Painted 'Carpet' Test Pattern

The installation, ceremonial de-masking, and final appearance of the BCR road paint test was a terrific moment. Nearly all members of the BCRA committee did the painting, as did Andrew Farmery and Pete Geekie who both have extensive experience with epoxy-based paints. The exuberant Dot Merriot (pictured with mask on) also did a shift. All the comments I personally received on Saturday were very positive. I am very grateful for the number of people who were (understandably!) skeptical that road paint would be a good idea and then mentioned they were pleasantly surprised with the final result.

Alex Allen from Sustrans as well as Shaun Hatton from Oxford City Council Works were both present on Saturday. Anthony Kirkwood from Oxfordshire County Council who is overseeing the DIY Streets Scheme has come by for an inspection and is pleased with the results.

Following an upcoming BCRA meeting with the Council to officially approve the test's success, assuming a positive result, residents can continue painting more carpets. This will involve a series of road closures, but we can continue to do so as 'access only' so as to minimize the disruption for residents.

Design for a foldable bench/planter

This is a very simplified sketch of a bench design that can be disabled by residents so that the seat folds up when preferable. The mechanism for holding the seat in an upright position is not illustrated here, but it stays up without a lock. In a vertical position, the seat board closest to the hinge drops into a slot routed into a block along the side of the planters and falls down into place, thus locking the seat in a vertical position. Unless you knew how to open the seat, it would not be obvious how it flipped downwards, as the design partially conceals the drop hinge. Details of this hidden mechanism will be posted at a later date.

The bench would be at a 45 degree angle to the kerb rather than parallel to it. This design obviates the need to bolt the bench to the ground as the weight of the planters keeps it in place.

The concept is pictured here in open and closed positions.

Road Paint information

The roadpaint is called "Hycolour 193" and is a two-part resin paint that dries quickly. It looks to be smelly stuff, so if you're in the immediate vicinity of the painting test area (16 - 18) then it may be a bit smelly for a few hours.

The colours we're using are "Venetian Red" and "Fawn". Bear in mind the colours may look too bright at first, but they will fade somewhat in a few months.

Certificates

* BAst P5
* AETEC P7 (Research)

More information about the paint on: http://www.adbruf.net/index.php/hycolour-193.html

Painted 'Carpet' Test Pattern

This pattern is a slight modification from previous ones. The larger clusters of same-colour diamonds that featured in the previous carpet designs presented a problem with geometry on account of the large 'repeat'. This revised design has a smaller repeat and will ensure symmetry is retained over the various sizes the carpets will need be along the street (eg when running along parking spaces).

This will be the test pattern painted during the street party.

Budget 1 July

We've already purchased our six large fibreglass planters. Firm figures are now in for bike rack manufacture and purchase. The road paint budget is confirmed at £1200. More accurate figures are now in for a transformable bench (including two additional triangular planters that hold the bench down), should this turn out to be the preferred design instead of a picnic table. The picnic table option is far less expensive, coming in under £300 instead of the £900 a transformable bench and ballast planters would come to. However, a picnic table might need to be fixed to the street which would create some more expenditure, and require an additional 'sacrificial' trellis planter to buffer it from the street.

There may be room in the budget for signage, but this figure is likely to be eaten up as a contingency. So far, we're coming in right on target.

However, we do not have firm figures for the trees or the 'extras' we might encounter. These figures remain fairly rough estimates.

Carpet pattern technologies compared

There are now five different sorts of paint/resin/thermoplastic transfers in the shortlist for the carpet pattern. Each have their pros and cons. There's a chart to help compare. If you have a strong opinion on this, or care to help make the decision or would like more details, PLEASE CONTACT TED ASAP! The thermoplastic transfers are very very expensive (over £100 square metre) and it's unlikely it will do, even though this is the quickest to apply. The other four treatments will all involve residents doing the masking, and in some cases, professionals doing the painting. They cost £10 - £30 square metre.

Convertible bench chair

Here's a bench that converts to a table. It's white and plastic and nasty, but I'm looking into having this done in wood. The idea is that in the event a picnic table proves to be too appealing a honeypot for would-be late night partiers, a removable pin that keeps it in table form could be stashed away and the 'default' position would be bench.

Half Picnic Table

The picnic table debate is warming up within the walls of number 37. And so the search for a happy compromise is on. The pleasant seating area in question is largely for symbolic purposes to signal to drivers that they dont own the roadspace, but also to be used now and then for social purposes. However, creating too attractive a honey-pot for loud late-night conversations is the hazard. Choices on areas for young people to hang out and not have to spend money or be moved along are very limited, so there's reason to anticipate that the existing BCR noisy nighttime natter might gravitate towards the picnic table.

Then again, there's plenty of reason to anticipate that it wont.

So in recognition of these two possible futures, here's a half-picnic table concept that might just douse the sweet smell of social nectar enough for it to be happily tolerated by those inside, and indeed, embraced.

Not everyone villifies teenagers, In fact, some of us love them and are happy to know they're enjoying themselves. So long as we can get a decent night's sleep. Dont forget, three speedbumps would create disturbing noise all through the night, with no recourse to stop it!

Tree Species: Eucryphia Nyamensis

Oxford University Professor Emeritus of Plant Sciences Dr Barrie Juniper's selection of hardy evergreens suitable for growing in planters: LIGUSTRUM LUCIDUM.

Evergreen, very hardy, currently in the car park of St Catherine's college (Barrie's college).

Tree Species: Ligustrum Lucidum

Oxford University Professor Emeritus of Plant Sciences Dr Barrie Juniper's selection of hardy evergreens suitable for growing in planters: LIGUSTRUM LUCIDUM.

Evergreen, very hardy, currently in the car park of St Catherine's college (Barrie's college). One very tall one surplus to requirements at St Catherine's is available if BCRA wants to make an offer.