Friday Reads – 15 March 2019

On By In Friday Reads

Ides of March edition

• Decluttered Tube and Rail map (EveningStandard)

• Quirky solution for feets on seats (GoNorthEast)

• Emitted but omitted: runaway runways (Isonomia)

• Cities & transit can fail the most vulnerable (PriceTags)

• Double standard of transit accessibility (CrainsNY)

• New Dallas DoT is fighting for urbanism (NextCity)

• Seattle viaduct demo property gold rush (SeattleTimes)

• Mapping global mega-regions (CityLab)

• The real story behind cruises (Quartz)

• Trans-Siberian Railway journeys (CalvertJournal)

In the mean time, do check out our most popular articles:

And some of our other sections:

If you have something you feel we should read or include in a future list, email us at [email protected].

See you next week.

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17 comments

  1. Is it me or is the link to the Seattle viaduct story correct? I
    get the vulnerable traveller link.

  3. That ‘decluttered’ tube and rail map is quite possibly the worst redesigned tube map I have ever seen. The Central line is so high, it leaves a huge empty space in the map around Hyde Park Corner, and ends up with a clustered area around Aldgate. Although the latter is clearly hard to draw, in an equivalent area you have 2 stations around HPC, and 11 around Aldgate – that is the area the needs de-cluttering. Also the long connection lines at Paddington – Lancaster Gate is horrible. The only thing that is good about this map is the intensity of lines representing frequency

  4. “The only thing that is good about this map is the intensity of lines representing frequency”

    Except it doesn’t represent frequency – the intensity of the lines represent whether something is tube (ie 2tph-36tph) or not (ie 1tph-28tph).

    The Central Line’s highness problem seems to be due to the straightness of it all the way across zone 1 (leaving a horrible long connector that’s almost a return of the fabled ‘escalator link’ that left so many kids disappointed when they dragged dads to take them on it) – it’s stuck where Liverpool Street is. Which also means the Lilac Liz’s light lavender line lollops across the map making it seem like some minor, slow, indirect route compared to the scarlet and straight Central line.

  5. Yes, this version of the decluttered tube map looks worse than previous incarnations of it which have been linked to from here.
    The ‘frequency’ highlighting is especially misleading – trains between Clapham Junc and Waterloo are every 2 mins – that’s almost up to Victoria line standards!

  6. I also didn’t like the way the ‘decluttered’ map uses straight lines with corners in some places and gradual curves in others. It’s a mishmash of design ideas.

  7. @HENRY

    “The only thing that is good about this map is the intensity of lines representing frequency”

    You don’t need to do much to add the actual freqneis of tube trains to the official tube map…

    https://ukfree.tv/styles/images/2018/Tube%20map%20showing%20train%20off-peak%20frequencies.pdf

    I found that very interesting.

    I’m personally working on a new tube map that had been reworked to put the interchanges onto a grid (in the true spirit of Beck’s circuit diagram idea). It still needs some work, but it’s a much better map than the decluttered one because it’s easy to see all interchanges.

  9. @Aleks
    I often do the same thing – and in researching the stories for this week, found the same David Foster Wallace cruise hell piece in Harpers. Thanks for adding the link!

  10. That Harpers cruise article was a joy – I bet the cruise line PR team have a voodoo doll of the author now.
    Relating it (slightly) to London, the Port of London schedule for 2019 currently lists 16 cruise ship calls for Greenwich and 17 for Pool of London (Tower Bridge). Unsurprisingly, they’re concentrated on the summer months.

  11. Ref to New Dallas DoT is fighting for urbanism.

    The link to the Dallas Department of Transport website has this introduction:

    Welcome to the Department of Transportation
    The Department of Transportation is responsible for providing safe, effective, and efficient mobility improvements and enhancements for the City of Dallas roadways.
    The department designs, the City’s roadways, mobility plans, bicycle program, traffic signals, traffic control devices, street lights, automated red light camera enforcement, and parking programs.
    Mission
    To provide a safe inclusive Transportation System for the City of Dallas Through Equity, Empathy, Ethics, and Excellence.

    No mention of public transit services (buses) or the DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit – light rail) . The Dallas DoT is still very much focused on roads and not much else. Does anyone really understand the mission statement?

  12. I think that might be because the buses and light rail are operated by DART as a separate multi-city agency?

  13. Hi AA,

    US Departments of Transport (local, state and Federal) are notoriously road and auto focused, so this Dallas DoT initiative is indeed groundbreaking.

  14. Si – “(leaving a horrible long connector that’s almost a return of the fabled ‘escalator link’ that left so many kids disappointed when they dragged dads to take them on it)”.

    This was indeed one of my younger self’s bigger disappointments in the ’80s. Definitely oversold.

  15. Sometimes confused with the Travolator – at least one author has described it as connecting Bank station to Monument

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