Martin Cassini is a TV programme-maker and
campaigner for traffic system reform. He advocates replacing priority (an engineering model) with equality (a social model) to provide a level playing-field on which all road-users can act sociably. This, he says, would remove the "need" for most traffic controls, and solve many of our road safety and congestion problems, which stem from those very controls.
Cassini has contributed to ''Economic Affairs'' (journal of the
Institute of Economic Affairs
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is a British right-wing free market think tank, which is registered as a charity. Associated with the New Right, the IEA describes itself as an "educational research institute", and says that it seeks to ...
), ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'', ''
Guardian
Guardian usually refers to:
* Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another
* ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper
(The) Guardian(s) may also refer to:
Places
* Guardian, West Virginia, Unit ...
'', ''
Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...
'',
BBC Newsnight
''Newsnight'' is the BBC's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. It is broadcast weeknights at 10:30 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel; it is also availa ...
and Traffic Technology International.
Cassini's reforms overlap with the
shared space
Shared space is an urban design approach that minimises the segregation between modes of road user. This is done by removing features such as curb (road), curbs, road surface markings, traffic signs, and traffic lights. Hans Monderman and othe ...
movement of
Hans Monderman
Hans Monderman (19 November 1945 – 7 January 2008) was a Dutch road traffic engineer and innovator. He was recognised for radically challenging the criteria used to evaluate engineering solutions for street design. His work compelled tra ...
and
Ben Hamilton-Baillie, which is demonstrating in
Bohmte
Bohmte is a municipality in the district of Osnabrück, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Hunte, approx. 20 km northeast of Osnabrück. The foundation of today's Bohmte is a result of the regional reorganization of 19 ...
and
Drachten
Drachten (, ) is a town in the northern Netherlands. It is located in the municipality of Smallingerland, Friesland. It had a population of around 56.098 in 2023 and is the Friesland#Urban areas, second largest town in the province of Friesland.
...
that peaceful coexistence can flourish when road-users are free to use their own judgement on roads designed to stimulate rather than enforce appropriate conduct. His ideas also echo the theory of
spontaneous order
Spontaneous order, also named self-organization in the hard sciences, is the spontaneous emergence of order out of seeming chaos. The term "self-organization" is more often used for physical changes and biological processes, while "spontaneous ...
, which states that the more complex the dance of human movement (e.g. a skateboard park), the less useful are attempts to control it.
Cassini helped instigate a lights-off trial in
Portishead, Somerset
Portishead ( ) is a town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary authority area, in the county of Somerset, England. With a population of 26,366 at the 2021 Census, the town is located on the Severn Estuary opposite Cardiff and Newport, W ...
, which began on 14 September 2009. Conducted in association with North Somerset Council and
Colin Buchanan, it went permanent after journey times fell by over 50% with no loss of pedestrian safety, despite greater numbers now using the route (over 2000 vehicles and 300 pedestrians an hour).
Minor trials took place in Westminster, Oxford, and Bristol in 2009. But deregulation is not enough on its own, says Cassini. It needs to be accompanied by changes in
road design
Highway engineering (also known as roadway engineering and street engineering) is a professional engineering discipline branching from the civil engineering subdiscipline of transportation engineering that involves the planning, design, construct ...
, culture, the driving test and the law.
Cassini is a member of the International Advisory Council of the Kyoto World Cities New Mobility Program.
Publications
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Articles and references
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Citations
Further reading
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Whole article''Buchanan report''
* ''In Pursuit of Elegance'' by Matthew May, Broadway Books (Crown Publishing Group, division of Random House, New York), 2009
*
''Shropshire Star''
External links
''
Colin Buchanan'' -"The effect of removing traffic control regulations at road junctions in the UK"
SSRN
The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is an open access research platform that functions as a repository for sharing early-stage research and the rapid dissemination of scholarly research in the social sciences, humanities, life sciences, ...
Author Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassini, Martin
Living people
English documentary filmmakers
English columnists
1947 births
People from Shepperton