Wayfound

There were two of them, cars I mean, just idling at the gate. I saw them from a ways off and in the time it took me to ride over to where they were I expected the people (two per vehicle) inside their cold shells to have given up on the gate ever opening and simply turned around. But no. Is it wrong that I didn't ask if they needed directions? I guess they had their phones for that, although I am positive it was those same phones that had led them into their current "lost" predicament to begin with (nor were these the only drivers who appeared to be lost at this side of the park). There they sat, staring at their laps, wondering why their devices had led them to this place, rather than where they wanted to be, and not once considering that they had let themselves be led there by the technology temptress.

Wayfinding, which used to be an integral part of getting around seems, more and more, to be headed toward the category of archaic art, another common sense turned rarity. It used to be we would look at a map before heading off to someplace we had never been before, write down the directions, even bring the map with us. Just in case. Show of hands, how many kept a Thomas Guide under the car seat, or stowed somewhere within easy reach? I just raised mine; how goofy is that?

Don't get me wrong, map apps are great, they pack a lot of information into a small space. Certainly smaller than the old Thomas Guides, which got ripped up and dirty as all get out while stuffed down under the seat anyway. But looking at a map, whether it be on paper or a digital screen, studying it, planning, considering a route, turn by turn, is far different than allowing some device to do that for us by simply following its directions. In that there is no learning, no understanding of the area through which we move, no intelligent interaction, no wayfinding. 

A long time ago, at a blog far, far away, a blog that seems to have fallen by the wayside, I decried the spread of freeway sound walls and the detrimental impact that they must surely be exerting on our abilities to connect to, learn of, and understand the spatial parameters of the places we live and travel through. From time to time, at this blog (and its predecessor), I have worried about much the same impact of relying exclusively on motor vehicles for mobility needs. That exclusivity can never match the experiential rewards of human powered mobility where it relates to wayfinding and understanding of our surroundings.

I can't ever really imagine automated vehicles becoming widely popular, I can't imagine people ever willingly giving up their ability to independently move about, even by motor vehicle; but should that happen I dread even more the increased loss of wayfinding ability and magnified disconnect from community that will, surely, result.

Interesting parallels in this story from June 2019.