Portfolio Melina Christina, Transport Consultant, March 2015

1. Background
My passion is cities – the way they operate and are organised. Keen to turn it into a
profession, I entered an engineering school in France (equivalent to a postgraduate
degree), providing training for civil servants working in transport, housing, and building
departments. Courses covered a wide range of different disciplines and developed my
awareness of the challenges faced by cities. As good public transport systems are
needed to have liveable cities, I then specialised in transport, doing my masters’
degree in transport planning at Imperial College London and UCL. Transport is a
fascinating and challenging subject because of its structuring effect on the city and
because it is both a human and technical topic.
Personality wise, friends and relatives usually say I am a determined and dynamic
person. I enjoy the challenges of finding my place in a new environment, along with
meeting new people. This has led me to volunteer over two summers, in Togo and the
Ukraine. These experiences required organisational skills as well as good
communication skills to overcome cultural and language barriers.
Since October 2013, I have been working as a transport planner in London. My key
asset is pedestrian modelling knowledge (LEGION) along with Excel and GIS abilities. I
have both qualitative and quantitative skills; the following sections illustrate some of my
skill areas and detail two project I worked on.
MARCH 2015
Melina Christina
Transport Planner
France/UK
PorTfolio

2. Skills network
Territorial diagnosis
I often produce GIS maps and interpret them to have a
good understanding of areas at different scales.
GIS is a software that allows showing spatially key
characteristics such as population & employment density,
car ownership, method to travel to work etc. For instance,
by highlighting census zones with graduated colours, this
map shows where the population growth has concentrated
for the last 10 years and to what extent it has occurred,
which is useful to study the relation between cities and
countryside.
Accessibility study
As part of a student
project, I analysed the
accessibility of Roanne, a
city of 45,000 inhabitants
in France. This has
involved assessing the
train and bus services to
study the connectivity of
the city. Moreover, I often
produce pedestrian and
cycle isochrones maps
(see left) to analyse the
accessibility of new
developments to public
transport stations and
local amenities by walk
and bike.
Traffic analysis
As part of my current job, I participated in a traffic
analysis in Saudi Arabia. I identified flow patterns
by displaying the traffic movements by time of day
over the week for different road users. This
required manipulating a huge amount of data as
well as thinking about the clearest way to present
the results. I also learned to spot anomalous
counting points, by looking into detail at the traffic
data at junctions.
Pedestrian density studies
Train station upgrades involve testing different designs. One useful
tool that I regularly use is LEGION, a dynamic pedestrian modelling
software where the main output is pedestrian density maps (see
above). Thanks to a colour code which reflects the pedestrian density
level (red being the worst case with more than 2.17persons/sqm),
density maps allow spotting potential capacity issues. Producing such
maps requires strong numerical and analytical skills, as well as a
good level of common sense!Transport modelling
Team work
Transport policy
Road safety
Public transport
Travel behaviour
Initiative
Listening skills
Problem solving
Total traffic flow (thousand vehicles)

3. 0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Southwark
Inner London
London
Project presentation: urban realm improvement at Surrey Quays station 1
As part of a student project, my team and I proposed design improvements for the surroundings of Surrey Quays station in London. This station is part of the London
overground network and is located in the borough of Southwark (South East London). We presented our proposals to Transport for London, the local government body
responsible for most aspects of the transport system in London.
The area was characterised by the presence of Lower Road, a strategic road
linking South East London to Central and East London. Car movements were
given priority which resulted in a lack of pedestrian crossings and an incoherent
cycle network. This raised a key issue for the access to the train station as well
as for the residents’ quality of life. Based on our accident analysis which
revealed a significant number of collisions at junctions, safety was also
perceived as another key issue.
Source: ONS
Travel to Work mode share distribution in 2011
Concept solution
Our team decided to adapt an inclusive approach to fulfil
the needs of all mode users. Our proposals were within
the framework of the Canada Water Area Action Plan
(AAP), plan adopted at Council Assembly in March 2012
that sets out a vision for how the area will change over
the period leading up to 2026. Our scope of proposals
was wide, from global thoughts about the future of the
area to detail junction designs. Two examples are
presented below.
In the borough of Southwark, a low proportion of residents commuted to work by
car, indicating that a large proportion of the total traffic was through traffic
coming from outside the area. The main modes of transport were buses and
tube/DLR. Cycling and walking modes were also popular, especially compared
to the rest of London (see below). In particular, a 27% increase in cycle trips was
observed from 1991 to 2001 in the area, compared to 3% for London on
average.
A car-dominated environment…
Poor pavement quality
Guardrails restricting
pedestrian movement
Lack of respect for
cyclist space
…non representative of residents’ travel behaviour
Cyclists' issues
• Non-continuous cycle lanes
• Indirect routes
• Inadequate infrastructure for
the high number of cyclists
at peak times
Pedestrians' issues
• Poor crossing facilities
• Fast car traffic
• Uneven surfaces
• Narrow pavements
Absence of cycle
infrastructure

4. Project presentation: urban realm improvement at Surrey Quays station 2
Improvement 1- Detail junction design
Our design proposal for Canada Water junction aimed at simplifying the pedestrian and cycle networks by shortening the routes and making them more visible to
the other users.
• Removal of the separate turn left lane on the southbound
approach
• Shorter and simpler pedestrian crossings
Key
Pedestrian Island
Signal controlled pedestrian crossing
Cycle Super Highway
• 2 lanes that merge into 1 in both directions
• Complicated crossing for pedestrians
• No crossing on southern arm
• Complex pedestrian crossing on southern arm
• Noise and pollution due to stopping/starting vehicles at traffic lights
• Few possibilities for pedestrian movement due to guardrails
CanadaWaterjunction
• Roundabout junction to naturally slow vehicles down
• Friendly pedestrian zone thanks to raised intersection
• More accessible eastern arm
Current layout Proposed design
LowerRoad/Hawkstonejunction
Current layout Proposed design
Key
Raised intersection
Zebra pedestrian crossing
Cycle Super Highway
Rail Station

5. Improvement 2 - Improvement of Lower Road “High Street”
Because of the presence of shops and residential developments, the section of Lower
Road between Redriff Road and Plough Way was meant to be a centre of activities.
However, this was made impossible due to the high traffic level and poor pedestrian
accessibility. Therefore, we redesigned the section to improve the living functions of
the area so that it can fulfil its role of High Street. Our main proposals were:
• The ban of private vehicles on the section that only cyclists, buses and service
vehicles could use the carriageway
• The removal of on-street parking to increase the pavement width, parking spaces
being relocated to an adjacent road
• The introduction of a median strip running along the centre of the carriageway to
allow for informal pedestrian crossings and reduce the vehicle speed
• The use of zebra crossings instead of signal controlled crossings to facilitate
pedestrian movement
The drawing below illustrates a section of Lower Road “High Street” and the one on
the right a summary of the proposal.
Project presentation: urban realm improvement at Surrey Quays station 3
Plough Way

6. To achieve a better spatial organisation of land-use and traffic, “gates” could be
implemented around the city centre and play the role of opening and entrance
places for Irkutsk . These gates would have two main functions:
- Linking function: gates as transfer nodes to control flows
- Place function: gates as places for the relocation of activities to unload the
centre
Urban Planning Design Workshop, International Baikal Winter University 4
I attended an Urban Planning Design workshop at the International Baikal Winter
University in Irkutsk, Russia. As part of an international team, I worked with
architects and urban planners on the topic of “Transport interchange as city centre
of activity”. After tackling the transport issues faced by the city on the metropolitan
scale, we focused on a specific site where we proposed the design and
development of a new transport interchange station. We presented our work to a
judging panel and the local authority of Irkutsk. The workshop provided a valuable
training experience of working within a multidisciplinary and multinational team to
design an urban realm scheme.
Transport issues on the city scale
Concept of Gates
PLACE
Connection
Transfer node
Destination
Activity relocation
CONTROL
Decentralisation
Organisation
Connection
LINK
600,000 inhabitants
50% of regional jobs
1.5 million air passengers
80,000 water passengers
The city of Irkutsk suffers from an imbalanced land-use and traffic impeding its
operation. The city is characterised by an overconcentration of activities in the city
centre leading to congestion and pollution. The public transport system is also
poorly organised and coordinated with a low control from the local authority and a
high number of private bus companies.
Potential gates
Overloaded city centre
Irkutsk
Siberia {

7. Design of a transport interchange station
Urban Planning Design Workshop, International Baikal Winter University 5
The proposed site for the transport interchange station was localised
south east of the city. It showed good accessibility to the city centre
(20min by bus), to the airport (10min by bus) and to the main
university and rail station (40min by bus). Therefore, it had the
potential to be an interchange station to key destinations and to be
used by inhabitants living south east of the city and that massively
used the car to commute.
Moreover, the site was 5km only from the harbour where boats to the
touristic Baikal lake depart and arrive. The renowned ‘Ice Breaker’
Angara museum and ice skating facilities were also located 2km from
the site approximately. Therefore, the surrounding of the site offered
the possibility to be developed as an important recreational area
which would be fully accessible by public transport.
The neighbourhood was also proposed to be a “pilot” neighbourhood
to test a new ski mobility – segregated lanes would be implemented
and used by cyclists in summer and skiers in winter. Storage facilities
would be planned at the interchange station.
The proposal of the transport interchange station
included the size reduction of the existing junction
(roundabout, inner ring road of three lanes ) which was
currently underused. Two arms of the roundabout
would be used by public transport only, allowing the
reduction of the roundabout size and the relief of some
space to implement the bus station.
The station would be slightly below ground level to
protect passengers from car traffic impact.
Retrouver la foto
“The private car is a family member in Russia, like a pet”
Mark Meerovich,
Honored Architect of Russia,
Member of the jury
Bus
Station
Shrunk
roundabout
Proposed
recreational port
Development of
recreational area

9. Melina Christina
WSP House
70 Chancery Lane
London WC2A 1AF
melina.christina@wspgroup.com
+447761474530