Online Community Manager Matt Simpson
In the second of a series of guest posts Matthew Simpson (Community Manager at Face, the co-creation and planning agency) tells us how the ‘Co-Create London’ initiative is bringing about some novel ideas to improve the lives of people in London.
In London at the moment it’s hot, very hot. In fact it is so hot that I overheard someone on the tube this morning say that ‘it’s too hot, I can’t bear it’.
Weather is something that we Londoners love to have a good moan about. For the majority of the year we are subjected to indifferent greyness accompanied by a fine drizzle that seems to get you soaked without even trying. And then when the sun finally comes out everyone complains that it is too hot and wishes that it were a bit cooler. You can’t win really.
Unfortunately for us weather is not something we can change. I’m sure if we had the chance we would all give London a few more sunny days (but not too sunny), it would most definitely make London a better place to be.
Here at Co-Create London HQ changing the weather is not the only unachievable request we’ve been faced with. Over the last few months we’ve been gathering Londoners ideas on how to make London a better place on our website www.cocreatelondon.com. We’ve received hundreds of ideas and are currently in the process of trying to make some of them a reality see previous Co-Create London blog .
However for every robust and tangible idea we’ve received there have been three or four amazing but ultimately unachievable ideas submitted. It is these ideas I wanted to take a look at in this post as although they may not be immediately possible there is some method and magic in the madness.
1) Tube Tunnels Become Giant Immersive Flip Books
Wouldn’t it be nice if the walls of the tunnels were covered in series of pictures that vary gradually from one to the next, so that when the train goes through the tunnel the walls become animated?
The thought of a tube tunnel coming to life was amazingly appealing. Unfortunately for this idea there were far too many big social/practical issues that were seen as a better use of money. This idea has been shelved for the time being but not forgotten.
2) Oyster Cards Make Music
Instead of the Oyster machines making the same beeping noise when you go through, each one has a different musical note, such as a piano key. Apparently in Japan each tube station has its own musical note when you enter and exit the station. This idea takes it one further and makes music when people enter and exit the station. The creator of this idea went above and beyond when entering his idea and made a little video about how it would work, check it out.
3) Magical Mystery Tours
Unmarked buses that will take you to an undeclared but interesting (and little visited?) London location.
Again we loved this idea, it would be great to take people to some of London’s lesser-seen sites… without them even knowing. Again though, it was not seen as a priority; for the time being it is on the sidelines but we’d love to make it a reality!
4) Rent-A-Dog
Establish rent-a -dog stations near London parks and green spaces and offer ‘well being walks’ with man’s best friend…
Sadly due to lack of space in the city not everyone can have their own pets, and this idea would give people sometime with a furry companion. It’s a lovely idea but would it work? We didn’t think so.
5) A Swimming Lane System on Oxford Street
People who want to walk slowly and browse walk on the inside of the pavement, while people in a hurry walk on the outside. This would stop all the pushing, shoving, barging, dodging, frustration, pain etc that walking on Oxford Street causes!!
Oxford Street is a pain to get through especially at Christmas and weekends, but can you feasibly introduce a walking system and implement it properly? How would people cross the road? Definitely an area to explore, but this idea isn’t quite right.
Crowdsourcing is amazing for getting fresh ideas, like the ones above, but it is even better for identifying areas and themes that are important to people. It is the latter that we will be exploring in our future blog posts.
Oh and by the way, in my very humble opinion, there is no-where better to be than London on a Sunny day!!
