Trial run
The Israelis are currently testing the new idea on Gaza. By the time they've finished there will only be rats left.
Israeli professors have advocated a radical new method of city planning. They say that proposed layouts for new urban construction should be tested by checking what rats think of them, suggesting that recent trials in which furry rodents favoured New York's street plan over that of New Orleans indicate the murines' superior …
... appears to have unearthed the conceptual structures and preferences of Israeli scientists. The scientists presumed grid is good, and interpreted the rats' movements accordingly.
People who have compared their own behaviour in messy humane cities with "efficient" gridded ones, and noticed the "destination" areas of the latter are the places where the grid breaks down might think something different. How about the hypothesis that the cobbled-together structure of the Big Easy encouraged a more laid-back lifestyle in rats that in long straight tunnels rushed around desperately looking for some quiet, comfortable, rat-sized spaces to hang out?
Rats find grids easier to navigate quickly, therefore so do people? That's a bit of a leap. An obvious difference that renders the whole thing a complete and utter load of festering bollocks is that rats don't read maps, use satellite navigation systems, take taxis or ask for directions.
> "Our research takes the art used by humans to create their towns and cities and turns it back to the animal world for testing," says Prof David Eilam of Tel Aviv Uni.
I expect the Israelis to be turning their mind again to further settlements on occupied territory. May we expect the good Prof's findings to find favour with Israeli planners? I think not, as long as the Babylonian Talmud and Sanhedrin are taken as authorities of the Jewish faith.
Kudos to Lewis for exposing a pernicious world-view that belongs to pre-history.
Since when was designing a new city to be rat friendly a good thing? I thought we were trying our best to bring down the numbers of these rodents... So we should obviously build more cities like New Orleans (ie below sea level ready to be swallowed by a passing hurricane? :P)
They say that proposed layouts for new urban construction should be tested by checking what rats think of them, suggesting that recent trials in which furry rodents favoured New York's street plan over that of New Orleans indicate the murines' superior judgement.
Well, New York IS infested with rats.
@fLaMePr0oF - sub surface dwelling humans CHUD, anyone?
@Anton Ivanov - following a donkey.
Sad to say, we're still following asses.
That the rats don't use city streets, they get from place to place by the telephone and power lines.
Also, New Orleans is laid out strangely because a river bends it's way through it's center - also, there is a "grid"... it is just skewed to better match the contours of the river.
One of the reasons I can easily navigate in the central Mexico City area is because there are a bunch of arterial roads called "ejes viales" which cross the inner city like a cartesian map. Kind of. And most streets are laid on a grid, so I don't end up running in circles.
Some areas, however, are a total NIGHTMARE as the streets run in weird circles and you end up in the same place, even if you didn't take any turns. Eeeek!
Mine's the one with the "You are Lost" City Map.