A Tube map of the London Underground that's more useful than the 'official' one • Hacker News Board

Re: A Tube map of the London Underground that's more useful than the 'official' one

#21

Post by tragomaskhalos » Tue, Jun 23, 2015, 9:16 AM UTC

tankthief wrote: post #19

CiaranR wrote: post #3

A direct link to the map SVG here - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Sameboat... Unlike in the official version, different branches of the London Overground Network are now in different colours, although annoyingly the original east london line is nither called that nor orange. The Northern Line is also split into the the Northern line and the Edgeware Line Some handy interchanges are highlighted a…

With the Northern Line being split, though, it isn't clear that I can take a single train from High Barnet to Charing Cross, or from Edgware to Bank.

Yes splitting the Northern line like that is not at all helpful; there was a plan a few years back to smooth the flow by making all Edgeware trains go via Bank and High Barnet via Charing Cross (or vice-versa, I forget), but it seems to have withered on the vine.

Re: A Tube map of the London Underground that's more useful than the 'official' one

#22

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 23, 2015, 9:16 AM UTC

tankthief wrote: post #19

CiaranR wrote: post #3

A direct link to the map SVG here - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Sameboat... Unlike in the official version, different branches of the London Overground Network are now in different colours, although annoyingly the original east london line is nither called that nor orange. The Northern Line is also split into the the Northern line and the Edgeware Line Some handy interchanges are highlighted a…

With the Northern Line being split, though, it isn't clear that I can take a single train from High Barnet to Charing Cross, or from Edgware to Bank.

[deleted]

Re: A Tube map of the London Underground that's more useful than the 'official' one

#23

Post by gadders » Tue, Jun 23, 2015, 9:16 AM UTC

bbx wrote: post #10

"more useful" That is certainly up debate. The reason why the diagrammatic layout was (and is) highly praised by the public is because of its readibility. People only look at 2 locations: their current one and their destination. They will eventually look at possible routes and keep track of a couple of intersections. But everything in between remains unnoticed. It's like believing that users look at every pixel of yo…

I think the only time greater geographic accuracy is handy is when you decide to take a shortcut by walking between stations - EG Charing Cross to Embankment.

Re: A Tube map of the London Underground that's more useful than the 'official' one

#24

Post by SEMW » Tue, Jun 23, 2015, 9:17 AM UTC

A friend of mine, Peter Saxton, did his own redesign of the underground a few years ago - http://www.londonlayout.co.uk/. His one is more like the official one than this redesign, in that it keeps more of the purely-topological feel (only horizontal/vertical/45° lines, etc), while still improving on the official one in various ways.

Interactive svg at http://www.londonlayout.co.uk/online.htm , pdf at http://www.londonlayout.co.uk/img/tube.pdf

Re: A Tube map of the London Underground that's more useful than the 'official' one

#25

Post by joosters » Tue, Jun 23, 2015, 9:19 AM UTC

bbx wrote: post #10

"more useful" That is certainly up debate. The reason why the diagrammatic layout was (and is) highly praised by the public is because of its readibility. People only look at 2 locations: their current one and their destination. They will eventually look at possible routes and keep track of a couple of intersections. But everything in between remains unnoticed. It's like believing that users look at every pixel of yo…

I think you're dead right about the Citymapper comment. I like this map as well, especially because it includes some overground railway lines that I would otherwise never think of using. But nowadays I'd just put my destination into Citymapper and it can show me the most useful routes from those, as well as bus lines & plain old walking.

It's always a good feeling when I discover a new way of reaching somewhere when in the past I'd have just gone on the tube.

Re: A Tube map of the London Underground that's more useful than the 'official' one

#26

Post by mrw34 » Tue, Jun 23, 2015, 9:24 AM UTC

peteretep wrote: post #11

Be useful to have a way to submit bugs. Linking "Kentish Town" and "Kentish Town West" stations as an interchange is a non-starter.

These are OSI stations, despite the distance between them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyster_card#Out_of_Station_Int...

Re: A Tube map of the London Underground that's more useful than the 'official' one

#27

Post by gotofritz » Tue, Jun 23, 2015, 9:25 AM UTC

Alawys amazed by the fascination the London tube map has with designers. No other map has the same effect - go London!

Re: A Tube map of the London Underground that's more useful than the 'official' one

#28

Post by wereHamster » Tue, Jun 23, 2015, 9:32 AM UTC

bbx wrote: post #10

"more useful" That is certainly up debate. The reason why the diagrammatic layout was (and is) highly praised by the public is because of its readibility. People only look at 2 locations: their current one and their destination. They will eventually look at possible routes and keep track of a couple of intersections. But everything in between remains unnoticed. It's like believing that users look at every pixel of yo…

> Nobody would think "Wait, why is the tube turning North? We're supposed to go East!".

I need to go to the tower of london. It is east of my current location, I know because I looked at a tourist map. According to this tube map though the line towards the tower of london stop goes north. Wait, that's not right. Am I going to the right station? Should I be taking another line? Is there maybe a different station that is closer to the tower? Maybe I should take one of the lines that go straight east. Hm. I'm confused. This tube map is confusing. It doesn't match the tourist map that I'm holding in my hand.

Re: A Tube map of the London Underground that's more useful than the 'official' one

#29

Post by DanBC » Tue, Jun 23, 2015, 9:42 AM UTC

wereHamster wrote: post #28

bbx wrote: post #10

"more useful" That is certainly up debate. The reason why the diagrammatic layout was (and is) highly praised by the public is because of its readibility. People only look at 2 locations: their current one and their destination. They will eventually look at possible routes and keep track of a couple of intersections. But everything in between remains unnoticed. It's like believing that users look at every pixel of yo…

> Nobody would think "Wait, why is the tube turning North? We're supposed to go East!". I need to go to the tower of london. It is east of my current location, I know because I looked at a tourist map. According to this tube map though the line towards the tower of london stop goes north. Wait, that's not right. Am I going to the right station? Should I be taking another line? Is there maybe a different station that…

I need to go to the Tower of London. This tourist map tells me I need to go to Tower Hill station. I'm currently at X, which means I need Y line, it's 4 stops away. I have no idea how long it's going to take to travel those stops. And I don't know how far I'm going to travel.

Re: A Tube map of the London Underground that's more useful than the 'official' one

#30

Post by nathell » Tue, Jun 23, 2015, 9:55 AM UTC

mrw34 wrote: post #26

peteretep wrote: post #11

Be useful to have a way to submit bugs. Linking "Kentish Town" and "Kentish Town West" stations as an interchange is a non-starter.

These are OSI stations, despite the distance between them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyster_card#Out_of_Station_Int...

And that's not even the highest distance between two OSI stations. The two furthest apart are apparently Marylebone and Paddington (0.8 mi).

http://www.oyster-rail.org.uk/osi-list/