I've taken one urban planning course in my life, and it was an introductory course at that. Even so, during the semester we touched on the idea of “real city maps” vs “individual mental maps” of cityspace.
Leaning to the postmodern as I do, I remember feeling as if the latter had to have much more bearing on people's daily lives.
A team in the Netherlands is working on a project called Amsterdam Realtime, which gave a large number of people realtime GPS transmitters and asked them to go about their daily lives. The resulting traces of their movements present a ghostly snapshot of how these people interact with their city.
Each person has their own view of the city. A Subway Driver sees things totally differently than does a Marathon Trainer (or even a pigeon).
This is going to be a very useful tool, for everyone from urban planners to marketers, to realtors…
