(Please forgive the length of this idea.)
On most days, it is just several tourist trails put together. You have the scenic trail, the historic trail, shopping trail, theatre trail, public building trail, etc, and all of them take full advantage of the roads, subways, bus routes, tour busses and taxis. The end of all of the tours is a goal, or prized landmark above all others that may be well known for one of many of the above trails. No one is expected to finish the whole trail of any category or even reach the major goal landmark except for the most tenacious of tourists.
However, all of that changes on City Labyrinth Marathon Day. Imagine if you will, the different colored lines in the sidewalks and maps to signify the different types of touring trails. But today is different, now prizes are handed out to the winners and many enter to raise money for different charities.
Now people can be sponsored for charities by not only the number of miles traveled but also the amount of time used.
Temporary dots are spray painted into the sidewalks and crosswalks to signify barriers. Now sometimes you have to turn back. Even the ending landmark may have changed.
Many core parts of the city are shut down to regular traffic minus the public transportation. Some of the barriers have crowds of people behind them cheering others on.
Closer to the main goal or paths to or near the main goal where the city is shut down it becomes much harder to cheat as thousands of people are now eyeing your moves. Especially since the only pedestrians allowed to walk on the closed streets and sidewalks have to have their marathon numbers visible.
Making the public transportation part of the labyrinth allows for only small parts of the city to be blocked off while giving the rest of the traffic and inhabitance mobility through out the city. Not to mention giving the labyrinth many dimensions that most labyrinths do not have.
Not to mention your own dimension, apartment complexes you or your friends live at, keys to certain buildings where you work or museums and restraunts that you can take short cuts through are also fair game in this marathon.
For those who think, 'hey I'll just take a taxi to that end location,' will be dissapointed when they see there is no way to enter the goal area due to the fact that either there is either a subway stop, sky way or underground passage to the said location. You may have actually added time onto your journey.
Perhaps said person will think to his/ herself, 'Ya know, it's not too late to get lunch at that place running the promotion where they will get a taxi for you afterwards that takes you to a place that may actually shave hours off your trip."-- sartep, Jun 02 2004 Taxicab metric http://mathworld.wo.../TaxicabMetric.htmlRelated concept. [waugsqueke, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Pacmanhattan http://pacmanhattan.comRelated concept. [waugsqueke, Oct 04 2004] Traffic Woof & Warp http://www.halfbake...20Woof_20_26_20WarpMaybe not related at all, but seems like it should be. [waugsqueke, Oct 04 2004] I was with you until the last paragraph.. (+)-- neilp, Jun 02 2004 random, halfbakery