Sociology, Department of
Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications
Accessibility Remediation
If you are unable to use this item in its current form due to accessibility barriers, you may request remediation through our remediation request form.
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
1987
Citation
Hill, Michael R. 1987. “’Asking Directions’ and Pedestrian Wayfinding.” Man-Environment Systems (Association for the Study of Man-Environment Relations) 37 (3/4): 113-120.
Abstract
This paper reports a study of the social ecology and systemic aspects of "asking for directions" in an urban area. Interviews were conducted with 100 randomly selected pedestrians at spatially stratified locations representing a variety of urban environments in Lincoln, Nebraska. The interviewer, posing as a "lost" pedestrian, asked respondents to give directions to local landmarks and then unobtrusively recorded their responses on a concealed tape recorder. Respondents generally provided accurate, distance-conserving directions with low levels of spatial complexity. Responses were friendly and often tailored to the unique environmental attributes characterizing each location. An outline of the process whereby a pedestrian asks for and receives directions is developed. The process is characterized as a system, here called a Pedestrian-to-Pedestrian Asking/Receiving Directions Sequence, with five essential elements: informants, origin/destination knowledge, route construction, information transfer, and user implementation. Several unanswered questions about these sequences are presented as a stimulus to future investigations.
Comments
Copyright 1987 Michael R. Hill