Taxicab geometry exists on a grid of roads rather than a solid surface. You can only "drive" along the roads -- no cutting across like the crow flies. Here we have horizontal and vertical lines, but all the "diagonal" lines are zigzags.

Given any two points, we can find the shortest distance route between them -- we do this everyday as we drive to work or school. It is only two blocks to the bank, and four blocks to the library.

How far is it to McDonald's? You can figure it out on the next page.