Initial Position
What are the limits for pedestrians? How do they tend to cross the streets? Do they obey the rules? Are this rules necessary?
We observed for one week two different points of the city with this questions in mind. While the days where passing by, more questions came to our mind. What makes people obey or not obey this rules? How about families? HOw do people behave while crossing?
We began in Südstadt, in a little street called ... on the south of Cologne. The streets there are calm with not too much cars or traffic. We observed and took pictures of the people crossing this street. To our surprise, most of then don't care about the traffic light and mostly don't even look on the sides. Although the streets are almost empty (no cars), there is still a pedestrian traffic light. What for? Do they use it? Is it important?
The last day we went to DomHauptbahnhof and Neumarkt, two places on the center of the city. There we find plenty of cars, traffic, and many pedestrians making their own rules. Some of them make their own crossing-path, others use the pedestrian paths as a guide but still try to make their way shorter. Do pedestrians make their own paths? Are this paths limits or guides?
After a while we wondered what if there were no traffic lights for pedestrians at all? And so we found a train station with out them. The need of taking care of them selves was obvious. And so we observed the people and their interactions for a couple of hours. And more questions came on to our mind. What if there is no rule or traffic sign for pedestrians? How would that affect them? How do they react about it?
