4 ms·
Having lived in Cambridge for a year, the shortest path is not always the most efficient path due to stoplights and traffic. It's a bit like UPS only making rig
by mlac 5y ago
Having lived in Cambridge for a year, the shortest path is not always the most efficient path due to stoplights and traffic. It's a bit like UPS only making right turns.
Also, there are streets that you would totally avoid if you need to stop in and pick something up, or get coffee (not sure on the fidelity of their data). Or to avoid walking down a basically empty road with no exits (just lined by buildings) vs. walking down a more populated road with store fronts.
It's interesting, and humans are sub-optimal navigators on some dimensions, but not all of them.
- hinkley 5y agoI recall as a young child, first learning about the Pythagorean theorem, and the moment I realized that cutting across a parking lot is almost always a 'short cut'. It was like I had discovered a secret of the universe. Quite different experience as an adult navigating a dense urban core and realizing that I could probably get to the Starbucks 4 blocks up and 3 blocks over faster than I could get to another one that was a straight shot, even without shortcuts, just because of the damn crosswalks.