London’s Underground Transportation System: Appearance vs. Reality
A recent article on IFLscience.com (The full article can be found HERE) recently caught my eye. In summary, it highlights the difference between two maps of London’s underground transportation system. The first map, called Harry Beck’s Tube Map, was created in the 1930s by Harry Beck and has been revised over the years. It’s the map you would see on a tourist brochure. It shows the intricate underground system as straight lines with even spaces between them. The other is the system superimposed onto an actual map of London. It allows us to see the actual spacing between stops and their location on a map.
Geographic Map of London’s Underground Transportation System
The most up-to-date version of the Tube Map
This begs the question of which is better to use? Surely it would be helpful to the average commuter to use the geographical map and see the distance between stops. That way, they could estimate the route with the best travel times from the map. On the other hand, the simplicity of the currently used tube map is also very appealing while the geographical map is incredibly confusing.
Despite the equal spacing of edges in the tube map, I think the travel times are subconsciously formed in the minds of the commuters as they use the system. For example, a commuter who uses the system every day will slowly start to learn which routes are the best. In other words, they will start to assign travel times to the edges between the nodes of the network of subways. Therefore, Nash equilibrium will form subconsciously among the network of routes even though the travel times aren’t explicitly stated. The point is, I don’t believe a geographically accurate map is necessary for everyday use, even though it may seem like a good idea. The mental times calculated in the simplified map made by the average commuter essentially nullifies all benefit to using the geographical map. This is most likely the reason that Tube-style map has been in use for over 80 years.