(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

I just had to give directions to someone in three dimensions.

Most of the time, when you're telling people how to get somewhere, you can just say "Go this way, make a right, make a left". Two dimensions: length and breadth.

NOT SO IN CHICAGO, especially in the area where I work, because just north of us there's an actual level change in the city -- a portion of Chicago underground literally ends as the two levels, upper and lower, merge into one. So there are streets you can see but can't get to unless you know the secret passages, and places where you can't go any further because the next level up of Chicago gets in the way. When you give directions in the gold coast, you need to account for depth.

So I had to say things like "Well, you can take Michigan to Grand, but you can't turn onto Grand because it's underneath Michigan. You have to take the stairs, but not the wrong stairs. It's easier to just go through the mall."

It does seem to me that if you're trying to get to Evanston from the Gold Coast via the subway, you may want to do some research ahead of time. Maybe look it up the night before, make sure you know where to catch the Purple Line? Just a thought, really.

Comments

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

**grin** Sounds like the Patrician's been pioneering the Undertaking from Ankh-Morpork in Chicago-- just, y'know, so he knows it works before he implements it in his city.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

You know, there aren't many mimes in Chicago *thoughtful*

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

...and if the Patrician has his way, the few that DO live there will soon be inhabiting the scorpion-pit and Learning The Words.

(thought you said 'mines' at first.)

[sociofemme.livejournal.com]

If your directions included the instruction to wait for the train, the argument could be made that you just gave directions in four dimensions.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Theoretically my directions did take into account whether the mall was open or not...

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

And explaining the crossovers to stations in the Loop, as well as remembering which side you need to be on for which trains at some stations...really, I think it's impossible.

[bluebombardier.livejournal.com]

If you make it to your final destination, you win at Mornington Crescent: 3D.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Good lord, not this week. Do you know how exhausting Mornington Crescent is? :D

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Interviews, deadline over the weekend, putting Trace (mostly) to bed, carrying about 2/3 of BossBoss's workload, I have an actual theatre networking gig tonight, and I think Coworker Crush has given me the terrible plague she had last week.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Mono? *Looks innocent*

[seneska.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad I wasn't the only person who immediately jumped to this thought.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

If that were a Wii game I would buy it so hard.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Oh help, and I thought that trying to find one's way between the various IRT/IND/PATH trains at 14th Street was confusing (that place is a rabbit-warren; even if it's a closer transfer I refuse to use it).

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Giving directions in Leeds involves four dimensions... the city physically is built in a bowl shaped valley, and the hillsides are terraced in places, so one gives directions that involve up and down as well as the usual compass points...in addition to that, because the outer ring road is essentially one way only, directions legitimately include clockwise and anti-clockwise. So directions can involve going south along North St, turn counter-clockwise and get off at J12 and then take the Down Road to... etc

However, as part of the congestion management system, Leeds also has roads that are closed at certain times of the day and one-way streets that reverse direction dependent on the time of day, so you have to navigate timewise as well...[and there are parts I swear where time itself has eddies and cross-currents.]

Navigating a TARDIS through the Vortex couldn't be much harder.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Now I'd like to see a Who story where a companion from Leeds drives the TARDIS and makes a joke about four-dimensional navigation...

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Well, I've read one where the Doctor got lost in Leeds...

[eofs.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't be so bad if there were occasional road signs. My dad has an almost savant-level map of the UK in his head (and much of Europe) and aside from that little "driving out of Luxemburg the wrong way" incident (which he then realised and corrected through intuition), has pretty impeccable navigational skills.

But Leeds? Leeds stumps him every time. Even just trying to get from Ikea onto the Eastbound M62 throws him. (For people who don't know Leeds, Ikea is next to the M62. As in, it shares a fence.) When I moved to Leeds for 10 minutes (long story...) we came in from the north and got so hideously lost amongst the concrete labyrinth. It was almost as samey as Milton Keynes - but at least in MK there's a grid and a pattern and it all obeys physics and maths.

And lest you think my dad just happens to be unfamiliar with the area, he went to university in Bradford. Though we also spent a long time trying to fathom Bradford's one way system earlier this year. We could see where we wanted to get to, we knew how we could get there on foot, but we could not find one single road which didn't lead back to where we already were. It was like when you have a nightmare and no matter what you do you can't get to your destination.

I'm off to Leeds this weekend to meet up with my mum and have a mooch around the shops. She's never been before. My train times mean I will either get there an hour before, or an hour after. Needless to say, I'm not going to inflict Leeds on her without me as a guide!

Leeds is just... yeah. It's like someone took Escher a bit too literally.

[sarahj2222.livejournal.com]

Stay home!! Or study String theory, my favorite thing. You'll be able
to get around in 6 to 9 dimensions, or even more soon.
THe 14th Street thing should also include the IRT and the BMT. And the
L train. Don't forget the L train.
Our favorite people ride the L train.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Oh, and note that the Purple Line doesn't run all day, something that's tripped me up before.

This city has really weird architecture. Until copperbadge I didn't know we had a warren of underground tunnels that include City Hall and Macy's.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

*until I started reading

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

Why does this remind me of the 'Lady, we got uptown, downtown and crosstown, we don't got North!' joke?

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

LOL what? I've never heard that!

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

Heh. That's the 'punchline'. Country-mouse gal asking a New York bus driver for directions, and that's his response.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

LOL, in Chicago that would never happen. We all navigate by compass points here :D

[mercurybard.livejournal.com]

And suddenly I realize why I was always 100% lost when I visited Chicago (thankfully, I had natives to trail after)

[hy-perion.livejournal.com]

Directions in Hobart are similar. You have to account for uphill, downhill, inside/down, and inside/up, as well as just streets. It's made worse by the fact that we're on a sidestreet, so to give directions to the nearest loo, you have to employ some interpretive dance.

[sandrayln.livejournal.com]

Y'know... I just got done reading the Dresden Files series. Your post today, and the one the other day about the hidden shopping malls, just suddenly made some of Mr. Butcher's descriptions of Chicago click - all of a sudden, it seems a heck of a lot more real.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I used to work in midtown Manhattan right by Tudor City, and it was the same thing, with roads and stairs and "you can't get there from here." I always felt as if the little raised park up there was a secret I shouldn't reveal.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

When I lived in Finland, I lived in an area called Itä-Paslia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:It%C3%A4-Pasilaa_ilmasta.jpg). It was an experiment (which failed) in trying to keep people and traffic away from each other. It was also built on a long, gentle incline. As a consequence there are not many roads, lots pedestrian pathways, bridges, steps, walkways etc. And the resultant topography has to be seen to be believed.

My block of flats had two ground floor exits... on different floors.

If I walked one way to the shops I wouldn't realise I was going down hill. The other way, I had a flight of stairs well more than one storey of a building.

I lived due East of the station, with the hill running more-or-less north-south. One way to walk to the station was totally flat. Another, which simply involved walking through a building rather than beside it, involved steps or even a lift.

One day I'm going to go back to that city and I'm going to go back to Itä-Pasila and convince myself that I'm not hallucinating all of this.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the mall I mentioned to the guy is like that -- you enter and exit on street level but inbetween you take a flight of stairs :D

[lunar8i8star.livejournal.com]

Are you listening in on my calls, Sam? I had almost this same conversation the other day. Only it included where to park once they arrived and the problems of having a North, South, East, West, Upper, and Lower Wacker Drive.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Oh god. Especially where ALL THE MESS EVER converges on the Du Sable Bridge at Michigan Avenue.

[lunar8i8star.livejournal.com]

And one must be sure to direct them around all the construction (and any movies/tv shows filming at the time)...

[lunar8i8star.livejournal.com]

I just realized our offices must be close together if we are giving people the same directions. 19th Floor Office Ninjas Unite!

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was thinking that earlier -- we're neighbours! :D

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

Here in Tucson we have a set of numbered streets (1st, 2nd, etc.) that intersect with numbered avenues (1st, 2nd, and so on.) Trying to explain how to get to 4th and 4th is always interesting...

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I have actually stood at the corner of 6th and 6th in Tucson! It was a very weird moment.

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

Down by the University! I know that corner! The best pizza place in the WORLD, Zach's, is nearby, and should be marked with a Holy Pizza Shrine.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

WE HAD PIZZA THERE OMG. It was pretty good!

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

**laughs** Goooood place. HUMONGOUS amounts of pizza for the money, too-- it's a major landmark for me. There are way too many bad or just-barely-adequate pizza places in the world.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Are they at least in numerical order? Witness the Avenues in York (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=york&hl=en&ll=53.96342,-1.058443&spn=0.006072,0.021136&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=12.501051,43.286133&vpsrc=6&z=16).

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

Oh gods, and I thought London was bad, with its streets that change names three or four times... Yeah, they're pretty much in order; Tucson's laid out on a mountain valley floor, mostly, so it's fairly flat until you get to the foothills. Our oldest roads are like any other city's, they follow the watercourses and lead to the mountain passes, but the newer ones are laid out more or less in a grid.

[thunderemerald.livejournal.com]

That's very China Mieville...

[kallaneboi.livejournal.com]

Ah, geography. And my mom wonders why maps and directions confound me, especially since I grew up in a town where you round a curve and you end up on a completely different street than you started on.

But mom, for all her savvy with roads and such outside, gets lost in museums on a regular basis and then I have to navigate us out :P