The Austrian civil engineer Hermann Knoflacher developed the Gehzeug, or walkmobile, in 1975 to allow a pedestrian to approximate the amount of space taken by a motorist. It is ideal for protesting against the primacy given to automobiles in the city, or just taking a walk in traffic. Knoflacher’s experiment has been repeated in cities from Austria to Thailand, illustrating the spatial possibilities of urban areas without automobiles.
Hermann Knoflacher is a transportation engineer in Vienna. He has been the director of the Institute for Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering at the Technical University of Vienna since 1985.