But what gives? Frequent Network Maps show us the arteries of the city: how we can get from one point to another reliably and quickly. But here’s something that a Frequent Network Map doesn’t deal with: that the urban network is constantly in flux. The nodes of activity are impermanent by nature, even during the course of the working day: in Vancouver, the activity in the morning is concentrated in the Central Business District on Burrard Street, while the after-work nodes of activity are centred more along Granville’s Entertainment District, Gastown, and the neighbourhoods housing the city’s professional sports teams.
And still, Gensler Los Angeles’s video on flexible transit is worth considering (apologies to Jarrett). While it’s useful for transit users to know the network of reliable buses and subways, it doesn’t tell us about the dynamic nature of our cities. Our meals are increasingly mobile, as are our workplaces: how can our transit networks begin to reflect our digitally-provoked flexibility?