Friday, March 18, 2016

Get it mapped, Hull!



'Why not walk it map ' 
Been thinking about how great it was in London when the 2012 Olympics spawned some great spin offs for plebs and nerds like me.

I’m still using the excellent Transport for London ‘Why not walk it maps? These showed 10 min,15min, 20min and 25 min walks from concentric circles from a London Station .

I hope Hull already is past  thinking about it stage for its free maps. They will get people walking and show just how near all the venues and varied places of interest.
2013 free Hull Travel Maps now outdated 
Those given out a couple of years ago are great , but the bus numbers have all changed.



The Bus transport system in Kingston upon Hull is fantastic. Make the most of it!

The Interchange is efficient ,  but its coffee shops are awful-bring some better coffee in please ! I always have to walk over to Hammonds (House of Fraser), but the ambient noise and MUSAK in there is an assault on my senses.

  *NB .Croydon has tackled fights and nuisance at its trouble hot spots in West Croydon Bus Station, a minute from the area where there were riots ,by playing the gentlest of Classical Music . It must have a calming effect or they would not use it . 

The new online maps of Kingston on Hull  are OK . However , one in your rucksack can be much more manageable , and at present would attract a much wider take-up . I do all I can to find hotspots and places to recharge my phone, and  have a solar powered phone charger but nothing beats a piece of paper for me when walking around . Or put free charging stations in all coffee shops! Please Kingston upon Hull City Council  just update the fantastic maps you published in 2013.  I have known the city for over 60 years and am only just learning the street names around what is now termed (rightly) Fruit Market Area. Great little bus there from the Interchange too, as I accompany friend who cannot walk far, but it took lots of research since all the numbers have changed . Listen please, we have money to spend in the new Cafes, and will come again with more punters . 

Out of the corner of my eye yesterday I saw 2 painted gable ends . Well Done Hull , I’m ready to go and see them right now . I've always thought such street Art defined Belfast culture, and excited even further Brighton's and London's. 
Whilst Pickering is looking for vast funds to renovate its medieval wall paintings , the cost of actually painting new wall paintings on 21st Century walls in Kingston upon Hull has much more appeal to me . I remember sort of seeing the Doom painting high up in a Coventry church near the new cathedral  and wondering what all the fuss was about , whereas in your face new ones can be photographed for later touch ups instead of agonizing in expensive conservation . Please map them ! I do understand that maps go out of date very quickly . I'm hoping that in the years 2016 to 2017 and then onwards you will just update them every 6 months or so rather than printing millions the first time. 
These days , all my posters and downloadable graphics and stationery that I  designed  in Publisher for Word or Pages for Mac are stored for future use, and its never been easier . 
I'm just an amateur , you not telling me that the firm  who produced the 2013 Bus maps do not have a them all stored!! 
Better still use a Kingston upon Hull firm , or get the local Graphics students on to it . I hope that the hundreds of children taught by me to use Publisher in 2002 to 2007 in Hilderthorpe Junior School Bridlington will have still retained their skills.and updated them as DTP becomes so much easier. Even my under 12 grandchildren are about to learn coding . 
Outsourcing is all very well , but its time for my city to  show the rest of the world what it can do .