In the summer of 2023, three high school students, Xia Jiayin, Zhang Zitong, and Chen Qiuyu, incarnated as "community planners", and jointly completed a research report on the improvement of community traffic guidance signs in Huaguang Garden Community, Hongqiao Town, Minhang District, promoting community autonomy with the wisdom of youth and contributing to grassroots governance.
The traffic signs in the community are a bit "messy"
Built in 1995, Wah Kwong Garden is a multi-rise mixed-use community with a total of 93 residential buildings in addition to the kindergarten and façade houses. Due to the construction of the subdivision in four phases, the house numbers are arranged in a jumping pattern, resulting in many problems in traffic guidance, such as foreign vehicles, taxis and online car-hailing, couriers taking mistakes and getting lost.
"For example, No. 62, No. 63, No. 64, and No. 65 are in the southernmost side, while the similar No. 66 is in the north. The old residents who have lived in it for many years are fine, but if they are new residents, or visiting relatives and friends, especially when the takeaway courier enters Huaguang Garden, they will often get dizzy. Yang Huimin, secretary of the general party branch and director of the neighborhood committee of Huaguang Garden Residential District, said that although the traffic and parking conditions of the community have been greatly improved after the "beautiful home" renovation project in 2018, the problem of traffic guidance chaos has still not been solved.
While Yang Huimin was thinking about this issue, Xia Jiayin, a high school student living in the community, approached the neighborhood committee and put forward the idea of contributing to community governance by participating in social practice.
Subsequently, a group of enthusiastic volunteers emerged in the community, and Xia Jiayin was one of them. Coincidentally, at the beginning of 2022, our Huaguang Garden Residential Area became a volunteer service (public welfare labor) base for middle school students in Shanghai, and we also advocate and encourage middle school students to participate in community governance as public welfare third-party researchers or planners in the form of off-campus social practice. Yang Huimin said that the content of social practice is also ready-made, that is, how to improve the community traffic guidance signs. As a result, a "two-way rush" survey was launched.
Three high school students initiated the survey
In the summer of 2023, Xia Jiayin and two classmates formed a small research team. Under the guidance of the neighborhood committee, the three of them analyzed the problems and pain points faced by the community traffic guidance through "online questionnaire survey, on-site investigation and evidence collection, data collection and summary, countermeasure brainstorming, and proposal of recommended plans", and provided reasonable suggestions for improving the community traffic signs.
The trio first designed a questionnaire and launched an online survey through the community's WeChat group to investigate residents' views on the community's traffic guidance signs and suggestions for improvement.
The survey results show that many residents believe that the number of traffic signs in the community is insufficient, lacks continuity, and the layout is not eye-catching enough and logical. Especially at the intersection of the central green space ring road and the main roads, the three-way intersection and the intersection, the traffic guidance is easy to make mistakes, and relevant improvement suggestions are put forward.
With the data collected online, it was not enough, so the trio decided to take a walk around the neighborhood and take a look at it and measure the height, length and width of each sign in detail. During the field investigation, the research team found more problems: the position and height of the signs were not obvious enough and were easy to be blocked, and the building number plates on the side walls of some buildings were not obvious and easy to be occluded.
The three summarized the four major pain points of traffic guidance signs - chaos, few, broken and weak. The construction of the four phases of the sub-district, the formation of 5 buildings in the residential area has randomness, and there are 6 jumping numbers among them, resulting in the chaotic zoning in the residential area, and the lack of continuity; the traffic guidance signs of the residential area are basically concentrated in the central green space ring road, and the necessary guidance signs and maps are lacking at the intersection of the secondary trunk road and the branch road; because the partition is chaotic and the information is less, the continuity of the traffic guidance is interrupted, and the foreign vehicles cannot make a clear logical judgment; the guidance signs arranged in the central green space ring are arranged because of the layout position, height, size and by the parking space vehicle occlusion, etc., is not eye-catching, and the information is easy to be mistaken. Some buildings have building number plates on the side walls, but the colors are not obvious and are easily obscured.
Combined with residents' suggestions and field research, the research team put forward four countermeasures to improve the traffic guidance signs in the community: combining zoning guidance to strengthen more intuitive flow line guidance, supplementing guidance information and maps at key identification points, ensuring the consistency of flow line guidance information, distinguishing primary and secondary process information with blue and green, and increasing the height and enlargement of signs to remove obstacles such as vehicles and trees.
"Paper research must be implemented!"
When a complete investigation report was submitted to the neighborhood committee, Yang Huimin said with emotion: "This group of children is very serious, and the solutions given are reasonable and feasible. This survey has done a really good thing for the community. ”
Regarding the children's concern about when to put the paper research report into practice, Yang Huimin said that the community will definitely put it in place! Hearing this "promise", Xia Jiayin said that she is "very excited, very happy, and very looking forward to it." "When I think that I and my classmates can contribute to community governance and make the community where I live more livable, I feel that all the hard work and efforts are worth it.
Yang Huimin revealed that at present, Huaguang Garden is preparing for the general election of the property committee, and the property in the community is also in a temporary trusteeship state. Once the election of the property committee is completed and the competition for the property in the community is successful, the work of upgrading the traffic guidance signs in the community will be included in the agenda.
"Social practice is a big school, a melting pot and a big stage for children to grow up. We encourage more students to become community planners and contribute to grassroots governance. As a social practice base for students in Minhang District, we will continue to create a platform for children to better develop their strengths and contribute to changing the face of the community, and we will also provide them with support to turn their ideas into reality. Xia Jiayin's children have made a good start, and I hope to drive a group of small volunteers in the community to come out and build a beautiful home together. Yang Huimin said.
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Source: Minhang Today