Constraints

[kake]

In our Introductions post (which people are still welcome to comment on!), azuire and I had a small conversation about constraints. I'm aware of course that not everyone wants to (or is able to) put constraints on their expeditions, but for those who do, I was thinking of running some kind of constraint challenge here at flaneurs, probably during June.

The idea is that we could make a collection of possible constraints, and then see how these play out for different people in different cities. One very simple example of this is described by jodi: "After you leave your house, you turn right, and then take the first road on the left, then the first road on the right, and so on." I imagine that this works very differently in cities (or areas of cities) that are built on a grid plan, and those that aren't. Another example would be to always change direction as soon as possible after you see something red.

What interesting constraints can you come up with? Which ones have you tried, and found to work well? What constraints would you be interested in seeing someone else try out in a city you've never been to? If you use any mobility/assistive devices, what constraints have you found to (or do you think would) work well for you?

And, in general, would you be interested in participating in this challenge?

Comments

[foxfinial]

I would definitely be interested in some June challenges! It'd be a good excuse to get out of the house and walk some more. =)

[kake]

Hurrah!

[spiralsheep]

Mostly, being constrained by public transport and my inability to navigate in cities is self-sabotage enough, heh.

[tree]

hee! +1

[kake]

Right! Public-transport-related constraints then :)

[spiralsheep]

Argh!

I'm currently playing the How Far Can I Push My Bus Pass game. The drivers know the rules for the city and large towns but they don't seem to know which villages are in the zone so I try to look confident when I board the bus and ask for my destination (which is probably good practice... for something).

I can't decide where to go tomorrow though: town with saltmines + canal, river + village, river + countryside (might be too muddy), or town + countryside. Of course, now I've put it like that the saltmines and canal would seem to be a clear winner (but I'm not sure I can cope with four buses and a wholly new town tomorrow). Hmm.

[kake]

Must admit that I'm hoping the saltmines won.