Once again the mainstream media and the conservative (with a small c) elements of British Society are up in arms becasue Transport for London (TfL) have modified the iconic tube map, removing some fare zones and the very stylised representation of the Thames. The new map is certainly much less clutered than the previous version.
But you would think from the comments this is the end of the world, “How will people find Balham station without using the Thames for reference?” What rubbish, the tube map works so well because it is a very abstract representation of the underground network, placing the relative locations of tube stations to each as more important than their actual geographic locations.
The Tube map has constantly evolved with changes to the network and style changes over the past 70 years. I have a great book by Ken Garland, that illustrates the history of the map, and some of Becks designs from the late 1950’s are quite different from today although they do feature the river !
Now is someone would ask TfL why do they make it so difficult to license their schedule data..
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network
