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Need Directions? Might Not Want To Ask a Transit Rider

Posted by timothy on from the take-a-left-then-descend-into-your-first-tunnel dept.

Daniel_Stuckey writes "According to new research, drivers, walkers, and bicyclists will generally provide us with more useful directions than transit riders. Published in Urban Planning, 'Going Mental' shows that cognitively active travelers, regardless of commute by foot or car, tend to trump cognitively passive travelers (those who frequent public buses and trains), in perceiving distance. Questioning cognitively active, passive, and mixed travelers about distances from a survey site to LA's city hall, the research demonstrated that the passive bus and subway riders have less of a grip on distance. Actively cognitive travelers, according to the results, were more likely to integrate street names in their directions, and also exhibited a sharper understanding of distances."

17 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Of course people who navigate... by DontScotty · · Score: 5, Informative

    Of course people who navigate...are better at locating than people who are passengers.

    This article does not need Slashdoted,
     
    it needs a quick trip to dev null...
     
    (provided someone can give it directions)

    1. Re:Of course people who navigate... by Eunuchswear · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The article says nothing about thinking for yourself. It talks about giving directions.

      Now re-run the test asking car and bicycle drivers what metro line or bus route you should take, .and how long it'll take to get there. (Who cares what the distance is - it's time that counts).

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    2. Re:Of course people who navigate... by khasim · · Score: 2

      Also from the summary:

      Questioning cognitively active, passive, and mixed travelers about distances from a survey site to LA's city hall, the research demonstrated that the passive bus and subway riders have less of a grip on distance.

      Rather they had a better grip on how distance is really measured ... the time it takes you to get there.

      Which is more useful for a traveler to know:
      a. The miles between A and B?

      b. The time it will take to get from A to B?

    3. Re:Of course people who navigate... by noh8rz10 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      or even better, how to get from point a to b when it requires 3 lines and two transfers. mixing bus and rail.

    4. Re:Of course people who navigate... by wvmarle · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I am a frequent public transport user. I don't even have a car.

      Unless on a familiar route, I wouldn't be able to answer such a question. Instead I have an app for that. Hong Kong has over 500 bus routes, about 300 green minibus routes, numerous red minibus routes (of which no route information is available other than on their stops, if they even have formal stops), non-franchised buses, and on top of that the trains, trams, light rail and ferries.

      Quite often to get home from an unfamiliar place I just find a bus stop, see which buses run there and where they go (looking for major interchanges on the route, e.g. "I need a cross-harbour route - any of the about 80 such routes will do"), and go from there. Works quite well.

    5. Re:Of course people who navigate... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Of course people who navigate...are better at locating than people who are passengers.

      It might not be so simple as that: people who travel by different means are travelling a different set of routes:

      If you embark on a mass transit system you are effectively traversing a graph with a bunch of nodes that are (as a factor of time of day/day of week, rather than distance) more or less frequently linked to one another. When the link is available, taking it will get you to the next node in an amount of time only very weakly correlated with distance (the bigger variable usually being the number of stops made, the closest equivalent to 'traffic' and the biggest drag on theoretical maximum speed).

      Similarly, pedestrians are likely acutely aware of distance, because they have to walk it and because they move slowly; but are probably a poor source of information on things like one-way streets, traffic signals, etc. because they move more or less freely except at road crossings.

      Why would it even be expected that people using different types of transportation would treat the same information as salient? In other news, people who fly exhibit a poor understanding of hiking conditions...

    6. Re:Of course people who navigate... by nospam007 · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Now re-run the test asking car and bicycle drivers what metro line or bus route you should take, .and how long it'll take to get there. (Who cares what the distance is - it's time that counts)."

      I don't understand the article at all. This is news for nerds, who are in the majority male.

      And everybody knows that males don't ask for directions.

    7. Re:Of course people who navigate... by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

      And everybody knows that males don't ask for directions.

      Google Maps navigation is the best thing to happen to us males. No more do we have to stop and ask some stranger for directions, or worse, get yelled at by our wife/girlfriend for being so reluctant to ask for directions when we're out and lost. Instead, we just whip out our smartphone, tap in our destination, and get Google Maps to show us how to get there, whether it's by car, bus, or walking. It's really a godsend.

    8. Re:Of course people who navigate... by icebike · · Score: 2

      The male tendency to not ASK directions is likely due to the male tendency to OFFER directions that are useless, and often wrong. Males also tend to have a buffer queue of exactly 4 items deep, and anything beyond that we need paper and pencil. Which again is genetically engineered to hold only the useful number of items, because any beyond that are increasingly vague and wrong. Men know they suck at giving directions, which is why they don't trust directions given by others.

      Reminds me of the old saying: Directions that are least explicit often end with "you can't miss it".

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  2. THIS JUST IN: by toygeek · · Score: 5, Informative

    Navigators know more about Navigation than People who don't Navigate

    More at.... wait no, that's it.

    This news brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department Department.

    --
    Nobodies Prefect
    Tidbits for Techs Technology Blog
    1. Re:THIS JUST IN: by abies · · Score: 4, Funny

      In other news:
      Musicians can recognize pitch of the sound better than deaf people.
      Special force soldiers fare better in the fight ring than housewifes.
      Women are better at bearing babies than men.
      Slashdot readers are better at detecting duplicate stories than slashdot editors.
      Urban Planners are better at stating the obvious than me...

  3. It's true by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I love our subway system. It takes you from one corner of the city to another without giving you even the foggiest idea how you got there. For all I know, I could be on a different planet and wouldn't know for sure. But then again, I'm not in it for the ride, I'm in it to get where I have to go.

    While we're at it, I'm also pretty sure that most tourists know more about the monuments of various towns than the inhabitants. I'm pretty sure there have been more Japanese in Notre Dame in Paris than Frenchmen.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. I don't want directions by iYk6 · · Score: 2

    I don't want directions.

  5. Expert Knowledge by hidden · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think it depends what king of trip planning you are looking for. I'm betting that if you want TRANSIT directions from A to B, asking a transit user is better. If you are seeking road directions, then of course you want to ask a road user (eg, a car driver)

  6. Re:I bike a lot by realityimpaired · · Score: 2

    60 miles in a car is 1-2h depending on the roads you're taking. If you're actually focusing on everything you're supposed to focus on when you're driving, that can be mentally exhausting. Not physically, by any stretch, but it's not surprising that people say they'd be tired. That kind of endurance can be improved, but it's not the same kind of exertion as physical.

  7. Scary by Runaway1956 · · Score: 2

    That is actually kinda scary to a guy like me. When I leave home, I know where I'm going, I know how to get there under my own power even if my car dies on me. I don't have to rely on a phone, or an app, or the kindness of strangers. I know how to get from point A to point B, and when I decide that a stop at point C is advisable, I just turn the wheel and go to point C. Something comes up that I need to go to point D, where I've never been before, all I insist on is a proper address, like "123 Main Street, Backwater, Nowhere, USA".

    I simply can't imagine heading out the door, hoping that I can figure out how to make bus lines, train lines, subways and ferries all fit together.

    Have you ever been in a hurry, and found that the connections would deliver you where you wanted to be, but four hours late? You would have been better off just canceling your plans, because everyone has gone home for the day!

    In a car, or on a motorcycle, I can make my mind up that I can make meet the schedule, or that I can't. And, if I can't make the schedule, then I can reschedule for tomorrow, knowing that I'll just have to leave home some hours earlier than I might like.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    1. Re:Scary by wvmarle · · Score: 2

      The ones being late, that are almost always the drivers, not the public transport users.

      Why? Because drivers get stuck in traffic, have to spend ages finding a parking place, then ages to walk from that parking place to their destination... With a little preparation (the same you have to do if you want to drive to an unknown destination - check your route, and figure out how long it will take) you can make it perfectly on time.

      And four hours late never happens if you simply leave on time. That's about twice the longest distance available. Arriving late simply means you leave late. And if I'm in a hurry, I'll use taxi. Cheaper than cars even, And much faster than driving yourself as you don't have to park the thing!