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Comment by parpfish | Hacker News Reader

when I lived in a city with an underground transit system, it was interesting how my mental map developed in a non-contiguous way.

I’d learn lots of little disconnected areas around each transit station. But it would take a long time to learn how all those little maps would relate to each other.

And each time I started realizing how two of those little “islands” were related by streets on the surface, my initial reaction was always disbelief. in my mind they were each distinct little areas and it didn’t seem possible that you could just walk from one to the other

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This is such a great description of learning in general. You get pockets of information, and then BAM suddenly you can see how they relate.

I had the same experience. Even walking the same street down from one side during night and then adjacent during the day, not realizing it is the same place for weeks. The one day I had most mind melting moment xd

IMO, living in neighborhoods where the streets are not organized in a grid is the most disorienting thing.

You suddenly discover that those two places, that need completely different routes to get into are right at the side of each other. And you do that again and again, at completely random places.

> IMO, living in neighborhoods where the streets are not organized in a grid is the most disorienting thing.

Isn't it the other way around? At least in the sense of, growing up in neighborhoods where the streets are organized in a grid is the thingthat makes you the most disoriented for the rest of your life.

That's rather a description of a tendency to cut neighboring areas, rather than grid system. There's plenty of places in the world where places close to itself are close to travel between.

This is why I love doing long runs in the city. It helps me connect all the little islands in my mind together.

I got a great tidbit a long time ago, whenever you move to a new city and want to get to know it, start training for a marathon. You'll know every nook cranny and hole-in-the-wall in no time.

As an undergrad that was so me with Boston/Cambridge which, in many cases, I saw as T stops that were not really connected at street level.

I still remember one time I made 2 line changes in downtown Boston, walked about a block, and realized I was back where I started :-)

I was about to say exactly the same thing.

Early one, a city kind of feels like an old school point and click adventure. There is train station x, and to the left of one exit is this location, to the right of that exit is that location.

But eventually there is that realization: Oh wait. 15 minutes down this street is that other train station. 8 minutes down that street is a bus line which connects to the line going home. It's a bit of a rush to make these connections.

And that in turn opens up interesting options. I could just walk with people I've been hanging out with at a concert, because I'll just know how to get back home. Or from some venues, there is good food nearby so you grab that and eat while walking somewhat towards home for 20 minutes on a sunny evening.

When I moved to London the fact that cycling was my primary mode of transportation meant I quickly learned the overall distance and distribution of common destinations and landmarks in central London to a much greater depth than many acquaintances who had lived there for years.

the london tube map is a classic of this - the map is all about how to navigate the tube system, not about distances above or below ground. i moved to london about 40 years ago, and it took me a while to work this out.

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