VolksNav© in Monrovia

Monrovia has the option to be world's first city that has realized an international orientation standard, an idea from a Munichian inventor to simplify and harmonize worldwide all orientation means: signage, cartography, postal codes, navigation devices and verbal expressions.

Within this city, it is (will be) possible to find any target with easy brain work, that means

- without maps,	- without names,
- without illogical numbers	- without arrows
- without floor marks	- without square grids
- without colors	- without compass or other navigation devices

Buildings, crossings, stop points, bridges etc. have logical addresses like

Gandhi Memorial hospital StatusQuo© MRV m10 r22

UNDP offices m10 r24

St. Paul river bridge m12:12 r105

Mount Coffee hydropower m1:20 r285

Roberts International airport m3:60 r475

which are easy to understand if you associate the city with a clock as follows:

An outstanding point as e. g. the Capitol was (will be) defined as a pole m0.

Around this pole, the horizon is divided in 12 "horizon hours"

m1 to m12

, whereas m12 points to north.

This divides the city as a cake in 12 imaginary sectors. As an example, the sector m10 was marked.

The sectors are divided in horizon minutes. These are not angles but DISTANCES to the horizon hour, in steps of approx. one "block of houses" or 100 meters.

Example m9:5 ( read "emm 9 point 5" or "emm nine 5" ).

This is a line situated in a distance of 5 x 100m from the horizon hour m9, which points to sunset.

The convention for horizon minutes is very simple:

the greater, the later.

Considering the distance to m0 as r = radius also in steps of blocks of houses, logical position codes for targets, buildings, crossings etc. come into existence, e. g. as shown on the picture:

crossing StatusQuo© m10:5 r25

StatusQuo means "where you are". In simple words:

"r" is a numbering starting FROM m0,

"m" is a north-direction-based numbering AROUND m0

This simple methode covers a gigantic market gap:

l o g i c a l and easy understandable p o s i t i o n codes.

Natural Cartography

A map with such a polar grid has innovative characteritics, see www.volksnav.com/map . Please be aware about the fact that if the target isn't on map, with the help of the logical position code it's possible to imagine where it is situated !!

Interesting details:

- the search grid contains quadrangules similar to the conventional ones. The picture above shows a white quadrangule with the dimensions 500m x 500m. The bended sides let know in which direction the urban pole is situated, even if the centre isn't on map.

- the width of the sector is half the radius !! Example: m7:5 r10, m7:10 r20 etc..

- the middle of the sector is radius/4. Example: m7:5 r20

.In case the urban addressing will set forth to the whole country, the following 10.200 addresses arise:

Bomi	Bong	Grand Bassa	Cape Mount
Grand Gedeh	Grand Kru	Lofa	Margibi
Maryland	Montserrado	Nimba	River Cess
Sinoe	River Gee	Gbapolu

Signage

StatusQuo© addresses will be integrated within the existing signage, see www.volksnav.com/lollipop, or be indicated on so-called Orientators©, the signage of the future.

Vertical Pointing©: additional to the position information, a round symbol called center or pole pointer will be placed on their periphery to allow to detect the direction m0 according to the following conventions:

if the pointer is placed	on top (f12)	m0 will be	in front of you (f12)
	on bottom (f6)		behind (f6)
	right hand (f3)		right hand (f3)

etc. Acc. to the same convention, a square symbol points to north = m12. The picture reveils: m12 is behind, the pole is right hand

Orientator©

VolksNav©

The local navigation with the help of such codes is called VolksNav©. As proceeded today with house numbers, VolksNav© is nothing else than the major/minor comparison between "r" and "m" values:

Simply proceed according to 1 -2 -3 :

1 -

Positioning

Turn your body until m0 will be BEHIND. In this position,

ahead	will be	outwards
right hand	"	to later (clockwise)
left hand	"	to earlier

etc.

Beginners have to turn physically, after some exercises anyone will be able to do this by his imagination power. In case you look at above shown Orientator©, you'd have to turn to left, correct?

2 -

r-comparison

Ask yourself:

must I move inwards or outwards?

( = is the target radius greater or smaller than the actual one?)

3 -

m-comparison

Ask yourself:

must I move to “later” (clockwise) or to earlier?

( = is the target m later or earlier than the actual one?)

Let's see an example:

Your target is: UNDP offices m10 r24

If you've lost orientation on named crossing m10:5 r25,

so you must go

- to "earlier" (counterclockwise) ( m10 is "earlier" than the actual m10:5 )

and

- inwards (radius r24 is less than actual r25 )

This may seem to be unfamiliar, but the orientation based on cardinal points is used for some thousand years and imaginary clocks are used by soldiers, boy scouts, pilots, blind people etc. for more than 100 years.

In a real situation, VolksNav© can be learned within few minutes, that means, faster than the most seeking times. Then you'll be able to navigate everywhere as elegant as around the Christus statue in Rio de Janeiro, where the idea of a quantified polar orientation and an orientation standard was born.