[HN Gopher] Engineering Icons Tube Map
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Engineering Icons Tube Map
        
       Author : timthorn
       Score  : 27 points
       Date   : 2023-11-02 12:31 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (londonblog.tfl.gov.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (londonblog.tfl.gov.uk)
        
       | qmarchi wrote:
       | I don't know why, but I was expecting a special version of the
       | tube map that replaced the standard iconography with updated
       | items from various engineering disciplines.
       | 
       | Ex: Hazard icons, speed limit signs, etc.
        
       | speps wrote:
       | At least they credited Harry Beck this time...
       | 
       | Jay Foreman's channel covered the history of the iconic Tube map:
       | https://youtu.be/cTLCfl01zuE
        
       | wdfx wrote:
       | Celebrate national engineering day ... Yesterday
        
       | TheOtherHobbes wrote:
       | The more I find out about TFL the more they seem like an
       | interesting org - something of a holdout with a strong
       | engineering and public service ethic.
       | 
       | They're not always popular in London. Maintaining and improving a
       | complex computer railway that's well over a century old in parts
       | and has never been updated properly on an unrealistically tiny
       | starvation budget isn't the easiest of jobs.
       | 
       | But they do seem to make an effort to be practical and
       | engineering-positive in a way that's quite rare in the UK.
        
       | Mrirazak1 wrote:
       | I think tfl has probs the best iconic tube maps in the world. But
       | when you first look at it it's quite confusing and if you look
       | the route maps for the buses on the bus stops you get even more
       | confused. I'm sure it could be made simpler in terms of helping
       | people find the destination they need.
        
         | JNRowe wrote:
         | The argument people often make is that it was iconic in earlier
         | revisions, but has become more difficult as the network has
         | been extended1. If you look at the historical versions2, there
         | definitely _feels to me_ like there is a tipping point where it
         | became more challenging to scan.
         | 
         | I believe there is a genuine beauty when you're in the network
         | and have the lovely design on shorter sections(Olympia branch
         | on Piccadilly/District springs to mind), or the simplistic
         | single line vertical maps on the entrance to individual lines.
         | 
         | Having helped tourists navigate the hotspots it becomes clear
         | that the people most in need of a map often aren't helped by
         | the current complexity in parts. Renaming stations might be a
         | nice idea too. Imagine hearing the Covent Garden message if
         | you're a foreign tourist, or British but new to the word alight
         | ;)
         | 
         | 1 https://londonist.com/2016/05/the-history-of-the-tube-map
         | 
         | 2 https://www.tube-history.uk/tube-maps.php
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-11-02 23:01 UTC)