A Design Manifesto of Humans-First

Give the surface of the planet back to humans, and design transportation technologies that respect human weakness and personal freedom.

In this small Greek city, pedestrians, speeding mopeds, and delivery vehicles fight for the same street space. This is primarily due to the number of pedestrians and the lack of sidewalks. The result is a stressful environment where you have to constantly look over your shoulder, making sure you’re not about to be mowed down. Something is very wrong when it is unpleasant or dangerous to simply go for a walk.



Our transportation systems have evolved with the technologies available. First it was horses, then it was carriages, then it was cars, and soon it might be VTOL aircraft. Every step had negative impact on pedestrians, from horse manure, to getting run over, to road noise and pollution. Humans do not necessarily need to be adversely impacted every time a new technology comes out - those are called design flaws. Transportation technologies are extremely useful and liberating, and they can be designed in a way that permits people to move around safely on their own power. For this to occur, we need a different design perspective where secondary users (e.g. pedestrians) are privileged above the primary user (e.g. driver). The mindset of both city planners and technology designers needs to change. If we envisaged either a car or a city, where people were given primary status above cars, cities would look a lot different.

There are many ways of accomplishing this goal, but one idea is that the surface (let’s call it Level-0) belongs to people. Cars can go underground via tunnels or hyperloops (Level -1) and aircraft or drones can go in Level +1 (the sky, well above buildings.) Trains could either be in -1 or +1, but never on 0. Level 0 would support walking, running, sitting, and low-speed personal transport devices such as bikes, e-bikes, one-wheels, electric-unicycles and the like. Level 0 is special because there is only one surface. In contrast to this, there are many levels of underground, and many levels of higher in the air. Thus the unique surface layer should be reserved for the public, just like beaches are in many countries. Getting run over by a car would be a logical impossibility because they simply wouldn’t be on the surface. Trains would no longer hit pedestrians or cars because the latter would never cross tracks. This design solution would result in much more safe and beautiful cities. With no traffic to dodge, the cityscape would become tranquil. Busy or loud aspects would be hidden underground or high above. This is a more humane vision for our future cities - one where people are safe, and where ubiquitous technology gets out of our way, and puts our physical and psychological needs first.

When I discuss this idea of giving the surface of the planet back to the people, the common complaint is “it’s cost-prohibitive” or “the technology doesn’t exist yet.” While partially valid, these are primarily engineering and political problems - not violations of the laws of physics. We are getting better at building cheaper tunnels, and this could advance faster if we invested more in it instead of pointlessly adding freeway lanes. Gradually removing above-ground freeways and replacing them underground is possible. Underground parking lots have been completed in other countries. Automated driving at high speeds through tunnels is already a possibility. This idea might be expensive currently, but it is not impossible, and it will become drastically cheaper in the coming years.