Are routes aligned with the street network less complex? A comprehensive analysis

Abstract. The routes displayed on maps by navigation support systems are intended to help users to orient themselves towards reaching the destination and to infer information related to their navigation. Inferring how complex a route is, including how well you think you can remember it and the likelihood of getting lost, may influence expectations on how it is navigated. However, it is not well understood when and where a route displayed on a map is perceived as complex and why someone perceives it this way. Current methods for assessing complexity tend to focus either on (i) the complexity of the route or on (ii) the complexity of the environment as a static and global property. By taking inspiration from navigational map reading and how routes and street networks are perceived on a map, this paper investigates how environmental complexity influences route complexity and length.We developed a new approach to gauge the alignment between the orientation of a route’s origin and destination with respect to the orientation of the streets within the network, and we investigated how this measure relates to route complexity and length.