Why the London Tube Map May Need a New Design – CityLab

London's Tube system has grown, and its map is having trouble keeping up. Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Its never been easy to design a map of the citys underground transit network. But soon, critics say, legibility concerns will demand a new look.

A familiar tradition played out in Englands capital city last week, as Transport for London (TfL) released a new version of its Tube map. The citys public transportation agency is adding a few stops to the west of London that will ultimately compose Crossrail, or the Elizabeth Linean entirely new rail service that will cut across all of London when it opens in 2021. For now, TfL Rail, a patchwork of soon-to-connect Crossrail segments, will begin serving cities and towns outside of London starting December 15.

As they have in the past, transport critics and map geeks assailed the new map for betraying the design principles of Harry Beck, the draftsman who brought abstraction and clarity to the increasingly tangled Tube map back in 1931. Becks use of straight lines and extremely loose adherence to true geography created the template for the systems current iteration (and many others). But as the complexity of the Underground network has grown, the map has evolved with it, inspiring an an ongoing debate among Londoners who hold passionate beliefs about the Tube and what its supposed to look like.

For those unfamiliar with this saga, be forewarned: Transport typography in London is serious business. TfL has an entire design guide dedicated to the style used across all of their services, and a new typeface upgrade in 2016a re-up of the original Johnston fontwas big news.

But TfL is growing, and the Tube map will have to change in rather significant ways to accommodate it. In the coming decade, the agency is poised to add the Elizabeth Line, adding 10 new stations. Crossrail 2, a proposed north-south rail line, could be under construction by the late 2020s if it finds funding and approval. Then theres a Northern line extension and the possible Bakerloo line extension. And if London Mayor Sadiq Khan has his way, several more suburban rail lines and trams will be absorbed into TfLs system.

All this comes after several other recent additions to the original Tube mapthe London Overground, Docklands Light Railway (DLR), and the Jubilee Line Extension, amongst others. The map has made room for more intersecting lines of different shapes and colors, squeezed into fewer and fewer crevices. Some critics say that a radical visual overhaul is needed to preserve usability for visitors and commuters.

Every transport systems goal should be that you dont need to know the city to be able to use the transport, said Jonn Elledge, the editor of The New Statesmans CityMetric site. Thats no longer true for all sorts of reasons in London. It should be usable for all people, and its not performing that crucial function.

Elledge is a patron saint of Tube map criticism; he often writes op-eds calling for change. He finds two major faults with the current Tube map, which he described as a mess. The first is the loss of certain details: Since theres so much new information being added to the map, he explained, it leaves out geographical accuracy. For example, the new Tube map has stops that are outside of Londons fare zones, in cities like Slough and Reading. Those two towns are more than 20 miles apart in real life, but a visitor glancing at the Tube map might be forgiven for thinking that they were in the same general neighborhood.

The second major fault is the overall message, or lack thereof. As TfL has taken over more services, its unclear what theyre trying to communicate, Elledge told me. Some trains come every 3 to 4 minutes; others come maybe every 10 to 15, like the Overground. Theyre not all the same frequency trains.

Then you have the criss-crossing lines of National Rail, which do not make it onto the main Tube maptheyre on a separate and more sprawling Tube and Rail map. But if a traveler knew they existed, they could be very helpful in certain situations. Between Waterloo and Wimbledon, theres a high-speed train that gets you there in 15 minutes. But its not on the map, Elledge said. Instead, the Tube map would suggest to take a roundabout way, via central London. You cant see if youre not familiar with it.

However, TfL has made certain additions that Elledge viewed as steps in the right direction. The dotted line between stations at Camden Town and Camden Road, suggesting that riders can walk to transfer lines, makes the system more approachable, he said, and should be expanded elsewhere. One model to follow, he said, is the Night Tube map, which casts a dark blue hue to show the lines available on weekend nights. That simplicity makes it much more legible, he said.

Still, Elledge recommends essentially starting from scratch. Its really rethinking what the map is for, and what its trying to do, he said. The agency needs to start from a blank sheet of paper.

Transport for London is certainly no stranger to cartographic critiques. In a statement to CityLab, a spokesperson for the agency said that we constantly keep the Tube map under review and I can assure you we are very careful to ensure that the information on the map reflects what customers need to know. To allow for varying digital applications, TfL has also opened up all of its demand and mapping data to app developers.

Of course, with smartphone wayfinding available from Google or CityMapper, the role of a physical map from TfL itself may be diminished. But that doesnt discount its importance, Elledge insists: A transport map truly is a cultural item, he said. You can locate yourself in the city, and its one of the few things that we can all engage with. Thats something unique.

This is not a rhetorical argument for me: As a relative newcomer to London, I often find myself wrestling with the Tube map to find my way around. While reporting this story, I found myself thinking a lot about the role that transport maps play in citieswhat they offer us as riders, and how they change the way we interact with our transport environment.

For one, it has something to do with motility, or our capacity to get aroundas opposed to mobility, or our ability to get around. Motility is a key factor in our individual well-being on public transport, according to research; if someone feels like they lack the capacity to travel on a certain mode, it may affect their willingness to take that mode in the future. A Tube map too complicated or intimidating for someone like me to use will both hurt ridership and fundamentally limit my horizons as a London resident.

Jug Cerovic, a Paris-based Serbian architect who designs maps for a living, is a strong believer in the importance of cartographic legibility. In an incredible side project, hes taken it upon himself to standardize major subway maps from around the world.

The map is the network, Cerovic told me. Above groundwhether in a car, on a bike, or on footyou can go in any direction youd like, he said. But thats not true underground. When you go into a station, you enter into a parallel dimension its a totally different concept of space and time. Without the map, you cant use the system. Its essential.

And how that map appears has implications, he says. In Paris, where he grew up, he had the 1990s Mtro map: That is the way I see the system, when I think of it. But friends of his who moved to the city in the 2000s or thereafter know a different Mtro map, which, in London fashion, added new lines and services. These people have difficulties navigating certain places, and avoid others that appear too cluttered on the map, he said. Because thats the way they see the system.

Cerovic laughed when I asked about London. Only in New York and London do they care so much about their maps. Nowhere else do they care this much. (Hes got a point: Last week, the New York Times recently had an interactive feature on the development of New York Citys subway map. Readers loved it.) He described Londons Tube and Rail map as frightening: I dont want to go there when I see it.

In Cerovics latest version of that same map, he utilized the TfL design style throughout, but the lines are more playful and less overbearing. If [TfL] keeps their current version, itll become a mess. But its possible to make it better, he said. TfL has no excuse not to make a better map. Especially when considering more complex networks, like transit systems in Paris and Tokyo, he argued. If you can map Tokyo, you can map anything.

But Cerovic doesnt discount the massive impact technology has had. It used to be the same map for everyone, he said. Now there are so many different maps. Google Maps, in particular, has become integral to our perception of the city, and its contents. He referenced a statistic that 13 percent of all web searches are on Google Maps, and close to 80 percent of users find information about nearby businesses on it. Its universality in our lives is only growing, he added, with appointments, travel times, and other information available.

But for transportation, digital maps, only tell you one thinghow to get there, he said. It shows the journey from point A to point B. But an analog map allows you to ask questions about your city. Because you might know where point A actually is.

John Surico is a freelance journalist and researcher who covers transit and open space for a number of outlets, including The New York Times and VICE. Hes currently a MSc candidate in Transport and City Planning at University College London.

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Why the London Tube Map May Need a New Design - CityLab