While the rest of Los Angeles drives, Downtown Los Angeles takes on a more complex set of transportation modes. Cars, buses, subways, bicycles, scooters, joggers, and pedestrians are just some of how multiple speeds harmoniously coexist within DTLA. This mixture is indicative of the graphic patterns painted on the streets, instructing how fast or slow each mode of transportation is, like well-orchestrated dance choreography.
The lower the travel speed, the higher the resolution in experiencing the urban details. Conversely, someone traveling at a higher rate will miss street details and understand the city at a lower resolution. A mixture of speed, as a consequence, would allow for people within the same urban space to attain different appreciations of the city.
As a choreography, the street patterns of DTLA are full of instructions for how we move, who can move, and how fast or slow we move. Bike lanes, bus lanes, stop signs, parking spaces, sidewalks—the well-laminated combination of movement types make DTLA more theater-like than street-like.
The interactions of citizens with multiple speeds are choreographed by vectors of the arrows, directing each velocity’s orientation.
Like the shutter speed of a camera, the multiple rates are multiple motion streaks smeared along with their directions’ arrowhead.
However, the players upon this stage that is DTLA are not just streaks and arrows. The demographics represented by the stripes and cursors are individuals in cars, bikes, or on foot.
The interaction between the players on the stage of multiple speeds allows faster players to note the slower players who can enjoy life in high resolution. It is through this exchange of velocities that the experience of DTLA remains complex.
The speeds and directions of this choreography map out where more interactions between rates happen and where there might be further opportunities to introduce more ideas of how we move.
A map that indicates the interactions between multiple speeds.
