Blog Assignment #3

For this blog post I would like to share a little bit of information on the profession memo that was written recently. Before we go into detail, here’s an excerpt from my memo on Traffic Danger:

“In theory, analyzing what goes on in the Van Dam St intersection should help in finding a solution to the traffic flow, as the various issues with this intersection can be observed in other parts of Thomson Ave. Although pedestrian safety is the Traffic Safety on Campus Committee’s main concern, it would be wise to consider both pedestrian behavior and traffic flow when creating a solution, as they are both risk factors for accidents on campus.”

The Traffic Danger scenario was chosen because it is the one I felt I could contribute more to.  An overpass and underpass were talked about in the memo as two possible solutions for pedestrian safety around campus. These ideas were mainly inspired from general observations made around campus and elsewhere. For example, the overpass was based on observations of some Latin American cities, where overpasses are common along the main streets, which in addition to being heavily transited; tend to be of equal or greater width than Manhattan’s Park Ave. A similar observation can also be made by BMCC where there is an overpass over the west side highway that has access into Stuyvesant.   

I have to admit that research was a bit lacking in this memo. Most of what was talked about resulted from my own observation and analysis, which most likely weakened it a little bit. The feedback I received from peer review did help however. Thanks to the feedback, I was able to identify some errors in the structure of my memo, which led to a little trimming and reorganizing of the memo. Although not perfect in its final form, I was overall satisfied with the improvements.