Whealey Dialogue LO10281

Mark L. Peal (mpeal@mms.org)
Tue, 01 Oct 1996 11:04:33 -0400

Replying to LO10262 -

Julie Beedon writes:

>When John told his story about the walk and his reflections on it I was
>reminded of many similar stories of my own. I wondered if the designers
>of the various roads and paths ever looked at the imaginary journeys we
>might take and the potential dangers and risks of the shortest paths
>through? Was it all built at once or did it build up over time??
>Maybe that is what happens with systems - they look like wholes today but
>they were never built to be that way.... My little town of Wednesbury has
>a ring road (busy dual carriageway) which creates a central 'space' which
>is the town. Unfortunately a lot of the historical community resources
>(Library, Art Gallery, Museum, Town Hall, our Chruch and Hall etc... ) are
>on the other side of the road!!

I'm reminded of a story told by John Evans of News Electronic Data at a
conference on electronic publishing. He had parked his car at the curb
near a cash machine, in a no parking zone. Then he followed a dirt path in
the grass that was a more direct route to the machine than the paved
walkway. The rule-makers (in this case, traffic officials and architects)
had much to learn from the users of their work, if they would only pay
attention. Walk through a city park or college campus and see how many
dirt path alternatives there are to the paved routes.

Mark Peal
Massachusetts Medical Society, Waltham, MA, USA
mpeal@mms.org
"We're all chunks in the same chowder."

-- 

"Mark L. Peal" <mpeal@mms.org>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>