Too Much Information.
Mason Porter, Professor of Nonlinear and Complex Systems in the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford, said: ‘Human cognitive capacity is limited, and cities and their transportation networks have grown to the point where they have reached a level of complexity that is beyond human processing capability to navigate around them. In particular, the search for a simplest path becomes inefficient when multiple modes of transport are involved and when a transportation system has too many interconnections.’
Professor Porter added: ‘There are so many distractions on these transport maps that it becomes like a game of Where’s Waldo?
‘Put simply, the maps we currently have need to be rethought and redesigned in many cases. Journey-planner apps of course help, but the maps themselves need to be redesigned.
‘We hope that our paper will encourage more experimental investigations on cognitive limits in navigation in cities.’
