Landmarks: A Thought Experiment - Landmarks: GIScience for Intelligent Services - page 33

Fig. 2.3 The regular design of the city of Karlsruhe, Germany. Map copyright OpenStreetMap
contributors, used under CC BY-SA 2.0

The walker decides to move from now on only along the drawn lines, and calls
them streets . In contrast to Sect. 2.1.3.1 these streets are constructed from abstract
principles, and so far only the datum has produced a landmark experience.

2.1.3.3 Adding an Arbitrary Network

In another alternative, let us assume the walker does not care whether the environ-
ment provides any cues for structure. Instead, the walker decides to draw freely a
network of lines on the ground. The walker might be guided by cognitive efficiency,
as too sparse lines on the ground would cause temptation to find shortcuts (adding to
the network), and too dense lines would reduce the imageability of the network [ 12 ] .
As in the other two lines of thought these streets would help structuring the
environment, but would not be based on any prior landmark experiences. Most cities
have neither a circular nor a rectangular network structure.