Mapping the new Shanghai metro
15 December 2007
Andrew Curry writes:
Our collegue Suvid Bajaj sends this map (click on the thumbnail) of the planned Shanghai metro – planned to reach 960 kms of track by 2020. In comparison, the London tube has a total track length of 450 kms, and the New York subway runs to around 400 kms.
One feature of the map which struck me was the fact that Harry Beck’s ‘wiring diagram’ model of mapping a subway system – which revolutionised the way we thought about the London tube in the 1930s – seems to have become ubiquitous.
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jakegoretzki | 17 January 2008 at 6:14 pm
…interesting.
This reminded me of a site I chanced upon recently, debunking Harry Beck ‘myths’ – buried among the myriad of sites dedicated to lost stations, tube map pastiches and other rare pleasures of London Underground.
It’s worth a look… especially the points challenging the idea that Beck’s map was the first non-geographic transport map and a world first. It is certainly true that British graphic design does often claim the concept as their gift to the world. Not so, according to site’s host!
http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~mjr/underground/myths.html
2.
thenextwavefutures | 29 January 2008 at 12:35 am
Andrew Curry adds: It seems that the Shanghai metro is the visual metaphor of the moment. Last year Richard Watson’s Trends Map was based on London; this year he’s chosen Shanghai, which also narrows the story to five core trends (one for each of the lines). They are: Virtual Worlds, Digitalisation, Globalisation, Anxiety, and Ageing. See more at http://toptrends.nowandnext.com/?p=338.