To me, maps are simply just sheets of paper with color-coordinated lines and nodes that help direct you towards where you want to go. Don't get me wrong, this is incredibly helpful, as they were created for this reason; but they're just not interesting, or useful in my case (since I rarely ever refer to maps for local travel). Often times I just rely on my own intuition, general knowledge of the city, and common sense to get me around. Not to mention, physical maps are becoming more obsolete by the day with breakthrough technological innovations of the last decade. GPS is the epitome of convenience nowadays. It's become commonplace to the point where it now comes factory installed in most modern vehicles. You can download applications for your smartphone that will tell you what your coordinates are on the planet at any given time. There's even ones that I've seen that can tell you exactly where you are inside shopping malls, universities, etc. I suppose it's human nature to invent such things, right? To explore, conquer, and map the unknown. It's just unfathomable to conceive how far we've come in such a short period of time when it comes to mapping technologies.
The sound and emotional maps that we viewed in class were fairly amusing, with the maps to the male/female mind being the most humorous in my opinion. Otherwise, as neat as they were, they still seem rather ineffective and useless in what they're trying to achieve. Besides the one sound map we looked out being drowned out by the loop of annoying elevator music in the background, I found that they don't really contribute to your overall sense for another city; street corners, vehicle and pedestrian traffic basically sound the same anywhere you'll go.
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The map posted above is for Zürich, Switzerland. This is probably my favorite city map, if I had to choose from any place in the world. I've been taking German at the U of A for the last year, so perhaps my opinion is slightly biased, but I think it's well planned and balances all of the elements that would account for our desires in a city layout (of course, after living in Edmonton, you'd probably think that a toddler scribbling on a piece of paper has more potential for a career than some of our city planners). In Zürich, though, the scenery is beautiful, there isn't a McDonald's or Starbucks on every corner, and there's bike trails that are adjacent to almost every single street. This is a bike Bike-oholic's dream come true. Every map of every city that you'll look at has different appeal; it all depends on what your tastes and interests are.
Cheers,
Patrick
thanks for posting the map of Zurich. i haven't travelled there before, but from your short description i definitely want to! it's probably (probably obviously) the language barrier, but the zurich map feels so foreign. do you think that it's because i have glanced at canadian city maps so many times, that they have imprinted a sort of 'idea what map should look like' in my mind? ie: hardly any grid areas. i hope that edmonton is known for it's amazing bike paths, too, one day.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been fortunate enough to travel there either, but hopefully we'll both get a chance some day. I think it'll feel foreign to you definitely because of the language barrier, but also because their infrastructure is vastly different. I'd also imagine that their terrain/climate, also much different than here, would influence the way in which they develop the landscape. I guess the only way to find out which layout you'd prefer would be to see it first-hand.
ReplyDeleteEdmonton does actually have more biking routes than one might assume though. I think there's a map you can get that exclusively shows just the biking trails here. I did a lot of biking this past summer, and you'd be surprised how far you can get in this city with just a bike. Check it out sometime (weather permitting of course). :)