Maps. They are something I have loved since I was a small boy, collecting them from local gas stations. I have a number of maps up on my walls at work, from a Machiavelli game map, to a Caltrans state highway map, to an original Pacific Electric map, to a PE map overlain on the current freeway system, to the original LA Metro Rail plan, to a fantasy Metro Rail Plan.
I mention this all because the New York Times yesterday had a fascinating article on the New York City Subway map, and how it is being redrawn to return to the abstract style it had pre-1979, analagous to the current style of the London Underground map. New York has a complex system, with 378 subway, bus and train lines, including Manhattan Island, which has 17 separate lines running up and down midtown alone. Lines also run local, then express, then back to local along their route, and once was three separate and competing subway systems that were poorly coordinated to work as a whole system.
The new map is pretty, although I have no idea how well it would serve its customers. Locals it would likely serve fine, but they don’t need the map. Tourists would likely be confused, but it does work in London.
As for Los Angeles. We have so few lines no one gets confused, except to wonder what light rail is :-).
