please empty your brain below
This panel along with the Travel Info number have, as far as I can see, both gone from the new map - something which you heralded yesterday as the removal of 'Superflous text'.
Today you acknowledge that these works make the map only 'true' for 5 days a week, yet it's on display for all 7, so maybe that wasn't such superflous text after all?
Perhaps we could have two tube maps - a simple one for tourists, and a more comprehensive one for commuters. It's a case of balance. You don't want information overload, but you want passengers to get the details they need to complete their journeys, and of course pay for them.
(No leaflet version sadly - it was in the back cover of the fares leaflet until a couple of years ago. Perhaps they could restore it)
Too right about it being a five day service. I dread to think what anyone visiting the capital thinks of it. And why do LU insist on using the phrase 'a good service' when it's running to schedule? Surely a 'good service' is when it gets you to work a few minutes early and you always get a seat...
How can we make sure that this group of people make the most of the substantial investment in improved access? Rely on them to go to a website and download a map of something they weren't aware existed? Or stick some blue blobs on a map and hope that some people might find out whats available? Or even both?
And who are the mobility impaired anyway? Thanks to the simplistic pigeonholing exercise that makes people feel good inside and relieves them of the need to think, there apparently exist two groups of people, those who are mobility impaired, who can never use stairs and escalators, and those who are not mobility impaired, and can always use stairs and escalators.
It ain't that simple. Consider a pushchair user. A couple of steps is possible, but not a full flight. An escalator is possible too in some circumstances. The access requirements are different, and the stairs
o stairs information on the map is inadequate. What about arthritis of the knees? Mobility impaired? I think so, but an escalator might be possible, or a couple of steps, but stations and interchanges without long walks might be preferred to be avoided. What about someone with heavy luggage. Does it have wheels or not? It makes a difference. Colchester to Heathrow can be done step-free in both directions, but only if different routes are used there and back.
Essentially, the DLR (when all the lifts are working...ahem) has "full access" (lifts at every station, and flat access between the train and the platform); but the tube, almost by definition, doesn't - but does have things like cross-platform interchanges (at certain places, in certain directions) that are useful. And even some of the stations shown as being wheelchair-friendly....aren't really friendly.
One example
e.g. there is one lift (for eight platforms) at Barking; which is one (of three) platforms served by trains arriving there from Central London. If you don't arrive into the correct platform (or if you get off a train that arrives with a platform at both sides on the right hand side, along with most passengers), you've got a long ramp down, subway, and long ramp up, and a platform length to go along before you even find the lift...and then find someone who will operate it... And if you are arriving from the east (or on any other line except for the overground, although sometime that comes into another platform on the far side of the station)... it's quite a trek, and possibly quite a tiring one, for a wheelchair user.
But - hey, it has a blob on the map, so it should be easy. Not to speak of the high climb into the tube trains (you'll be OK on the c2c; they supply ramps)
The point is: this sort of info is too specialised and needs to be gone into detail for it to be made meaningful or to be of any practical use to anyone who needs to use it (rather than Boris or Ken saying "look at how accessible the tube is to everyone now!, which is when all is said and done just not true).
The basic tube map is not the place for that.
So, yes, BIN THE BLOODY BLOBS (good way of putting it, that). By all means advertise that detailed access maps are available at every station (as I think, in theory, they are). But don't bugger up the main map!
If you have noticed that from your station you can only get to Tottenham Hale then you might recognise that as a glimpse into the lives of disabled people. You might even like to support initiatives to improve access to yet more stations. Without the blobs on the map you probably would not have known, as information on disabled access would be gettoised only for those who took the trouble to seek it out.
My parents tend to come in from Waterloo. Via the Jubilee Line there are actually some very useful journey opportunities for them.
2: Venichka: Yes, DLR has full access. So too does the new section of the Jubilee Line. Other stations are being improved year by year through a massive investment programme. It is important that information on access is made available as widely as possible.
Although I agree with the content of the information regarding accessibility and marking the stations which encourage those with mobility problems, I wonder what the result of the consultation with wheelchair users was ?
Similarly, with the advent of the Overground, we get the choice of two routings on many routes - one that is quicker, via the centre, or one that is slower, avoiding the centre, but cheaper. Again, people need the zone information to determine if there are savings to be made. Sure, people won't know the exact price, but they will understand that fewer zones = cheaper.
Of course, if people don't know the zones...
What's the tube map designed for? For people to navigate the underground effectively (and, to my mind, this is a combination of price and routing) or to satisfy design purists? The zones didn't really clutter the map and provided valuable information to a lot of people.
..give.. ..time.. ..day;
..waste.. ..breath...
• Mark Easton at the BBC
• BBC London
• Daily Mail
• Evening Standard
Edgware Road is not an interchange to/from the Bakerloo line
Edgware Road is not an interchange to/from the Bakerloo line
Edgware Road is not an interchange to/from the Bakerloo line
Edgware Road is not an interchange to/from the Bakerloo line
Edgware Road is not an interchange to/from the Bakerloo line
Edgware Road is not an interchange to/from the Bakerloo line
Edgware Road is not an interchange to/from the Bakerloo line
Change at Baker Street or Paddington instead. And tell the idiots to take this non-interchange off.
I'm fascinated that each new tube map edition is greeted in similar fashion to the new beaujolais.
At least that's what it looks like from the other side of the world.
Well they must know what zones they are in? It's not like they change.
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