What I read
In the video "The genius of the London Tube Map"
(2018), Micheal Bierut tells an origin of London Underground map. Back in 1933,
the Underground introduced a new map created by Henry Beck, the Underground’s engineering
draftsman. The old map replaced by Beck's was based on travel maps consisting
of curves and twists to unnecessarily reflect the geographical routes of which passengers
who only need to know which station to get in and out did
not really care. Beck made it easier to read by transforming it into a
diagram-looking map with only three types of line: horizontal, vertical and
45-degree and different color representing each rail line. His map became widely known and was a model
for railway maps in most cities of the world.
___________________________________
My response
Looking at London Underground map first time, I think it is very colorful, draw much intention, and, of course, more readable compared with the old version. The map concerns pretty much about quick looking up for information which is just appropriate when you are at a busy station in middle of going somewhere and time seems to rush you off. I realized that when I thought of the time I was in crowded Waterloo station and had to look up for my destination and for how I could get there. Beck was clever that he came up with such a practical map. Apart from the use of it. It is also a classic symbol of London and was used in most souvenirs like T-shirt and key ring.
I saw maps with mutual characteristic in many cities including Asian ones like Singapore, Hong Kong, then Bangkok. In Bangkok, the railway routes is not as complicate as the other countries but there is some difficult bit about finding an entry to get in for me sometimes. I think this is about the signs in the station which state only the ending station of each rail line. If someone who does not usually take a train or use the route every day, it takes some time to figure out which entry to walk to because there is no whole map to tell which direction of a rail line passenger should get in in order to get to their destination, after passing ticket scanning. If I was at Ari, going to Victory Monument, it took me long to find out which direction to go, Mochit or Onnut. In addition, because we are during the development the end of the line keep changing (now it is not Onnut anymore, but Samrong) and I cannot keep up with that. I couldn't help but wondered "where is Bang Wa?" and "is that next to Saphan Taksin"
There is another comment I heard about railway in Bangkok. One of my German teachers, she had been in Bangkok for about two months. She took MRT every day to go to work. At the time she did not get used to a restriction which does not allow passengers to drink at all on the train. However, in Germany, passengers can drink some water while riding. She think the weather is quite hot here, in Bangkok. At least a bottle of water should be okay to not get dehydrated.
_____________________________
I saw maps with mutual characteristic in many cities including Asian ones like Singapore, Hong Kong, then Bangkok. In Bangkok, the railway routes is not as complicate as the other countries but there is some difficult bit about finding an entry to get in for me sometimes. I think this is about the signs in the station which state only the ending station of each rail line. If someone who does not usually take a train or use the route every day, it takes some time to figure out which entry to walk to because there is no whole map to tell which direction of a rail line passenger should get in in order to get to their destination, after passing ticket scanning. If I was at Ari, going to Victory Monument, it took me long to find out which direction to go, Mochit or Onnut. In addition, because we are during the development the end of the line keep changing (now it is not Onnut anymore, but Samrong) and I cannot keep up with that. I couldn't help but wondered "where is Bang Wa?" and "is that next to Saphan Taksin"
There is another comment I heard about railway in Bangkok. One of my German teachers, she had been in Bangkok for about two months. She took MRT every day to go to work. At the time she did not get used to a restriction which does not allow passengers to drink at all on the train. However, in Germany, passengers can drink some water while riding. She think the weather is quite hot here, in Bangkok. At least a bottle of water should be okay to not get dehydrated.
_____________________________
My question
How often do you use railway in Bangkok?
___________________________________
Reference
- Bierut, M. (2018, Martch). The genius of the London Tube Map. Ted. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_bierut_the_genius_of_the_london_tube_map
I thought that Kan's post was a great example of the theme of movement that we have been exploring in Unit 5 of Skillful the past week. It shows a strategy that millions of people use to successfully navigate mass transit systems such as Bangkok's BTS and MRT. As a regular user of the BTS, and less often the MRT, I like the graphic organizers that simply tell me the information that I need to get from Chongnonsri to Saphan Kwai or wherever. I don't know the actual direction that the line takes as it twists around corners and avoids obstacles, and I really don't need that detail, which would only be confusing as Kan's excellent summary notes. All that I need to know is which platform to wait at, and with the signs at the stations, the maps provide everything I need to plan a route from my home to wherever.
ReplyDeleteTaxis are even simpler, but the BTS is my preferred choice if it's an option because it's usually much faster, unless I'm coming in to Silom from Suvarnaphum Airport at midnight, when traffic is not an issue.