What is your mental map of a city? I bet it’s not measured in miles. This project is part of my work in the SENSEable City’s workshop this semester. In these distorted maps of Paris, the distance between a spot and the city center is not proportional to their geographical distance, but the cost taken to get there.
Standard map vs. driving time map of Paris: the city center expands from congestion, and the edge is denser.
Comparing the isochronic map of Paris under different transportation modes: (unit: minutes)
Think driving is better? However, if we map the city using carbon footprint as distance: (unit: kg CO2)
In the workshop I proposed an alternative navigation on smartphone map services. I call it an isogreenic map. This would have a psychological influence on the user when he decides which transportation makes the trip easier:
Vector map: openstreetmap.org Connection data: Google Directions, RATP.com
A demo video that shows how the transformation works: