If not, people loose a sense of security and will not use the infrastructure Such ‘points of difference’ should have a quality of their own, so you recognize them immediately as another space, argues Jansma. This authenticity of specific places creates a sense of being here or being there. A specific design of a light rail station, for example, is also identified by people, who are not using the system and are just passing by. It’s very important to make a place have it’s own character so people know where they are. This is even more important when designing larger housing projects. People need to be able to identify their home as being different from the rest. Having identity and knowing where you are, makes people more relaxed, according to Jansma.
Points of difference
Transport infrastructure is very optimized in our part of the world, but, this brings a danger that people don’t feel where they are, Zwarts & Jansma have found. On highways, in public transport things need to be different at different points in time along a track so people do not loose their sense of distance and understand where they are.
