July 11, 2011

Going Underground?

As a Londoner through and through (SW14 represent!) I have spent a good deal of my life on public transport. As much as I always complain about trains breaking down and various signal failures, I still feel incredibly blessed to live in a city like London that has such a wide variety of transport to choose from. When I was at school it was all about Southwest train services in and out of Clapham Junction during the week, and trips around and about southwest London on the 33, 337, and occasional N10 buses on the weekends. 

Today it is all about the underground.



I haven't spent this much time on the tubular since... well this time last year, but with an increased amount of time on the tube each day you begin to look at travel in a different way. In particular I've begun to look at the iconic underground map more closely. I think in recent years the map's artistic beauty, with its coloured straight lines, has taken over it's practical use as a guide of London, which it was never intended to be.

The people at London Tubemap have in light of this, taken it upon themselves to redraw the underground map as we know it. 


The new map is a much more fluid approach to London's over and underground geography. And while is doesn't paint the travel zones that the traditional map does, I think it would make for a much better tool for London's tourists who often use the traditional map as a 'accurate' representation of the city. 

Two perspectives: 



What do you think? Should Transport for London consider a change to a new map with a more accurate representation of London's geography? Or should they keep the traditional map alive?

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