Observation

Our task is to observe Chessington World of adventures and Tolworth Round about.

The subject is Minor & Major. I gathered some information about both of them by the internet.

I am Korean so I am not familiar with roundabout. After I came to London, I have seen roundabout when I walk on the street or on a bus but most of them are small. I just got some images and descriptions from google earth and Wikipedia before I went there.According to Wikipedia, a roundabout is one of several types of circular road junctions or intersections at which traffic is slowed down and enters a one-way stream around a central island. 

When I arrived there, I realised that the round about is the biggest one I have ever seen. It is kind of intersection. It is totally different from Korean intersection systems. I had no idea what I should observe without understanding of the functions.

As an interior designer, I take photos and look at architectural drawing to understand the structure and functions when I design spaces, but in this case I couldn’t get the maps so I decided to draw the maps by myself in order to understand it. I guessed I could get some notion of the place.

Drawing a map allowed me to analyse the road structure, car flows, and pedestrian circulations.

Drawing the roundabout I found it allows pedestrian to cross the road without stopping like an overhead footbridge which is used in Korea instead of zebra crossing. It also gives pedestrians to protection from cars. Cars running on Tolworth Underpass road drive efficiently without disturbance from pedestrians and traffic lights.

Through the research on crime statistics, we found that the round about allows people to cross the road easily but on the other hand it threatens people with crimes.

At Chessington World of Adventures, the traffic flows didn’t seem effective. Helping to understand the problems, I drew a map of the place and I found that the main road is too narrow and traffic system is complicated. Theme park traffic affects the traffic on the main road, causing delays.     

I hope my drawings and observation of the places are helpful for innovation.