Our strange fascination with metro maps

I've previously written about metros and in particular, the Berlin U-Bahn. Die Welt recently had two superb articles about metro maps, 'Die seltsame Faszination von U-Bahn-Plänen' (The strange fascination of metro plans).

Ihre Farben sind fast überall gleich: Rot, Grün, Blau, Gelb. Sie erinnern an Teller voller Spaghetti, an kämpfende Würmer oder äußerst wirre Grafiken und weisen uns doch den Weg. U-Bahn-Pläne aus verschiedenen Städten üben große Anziehungskraft aus – auch wenn man gerade nicht in der Bahn sitzt.

translation

Their colors are almost the same everywhere: red, green, blue, yellow. They remind us of plate of spaghetti, with fighting worms or extremely confused graphics and show us the way yet. Metro plans of various cities exert great attraction - even when not sitting in the train.

See also part 2.

Metro maps are indeed fascinating. We would be lost in the maze of platforms if it were not for the maps. We need to know before boarding a metro train the direction of travel, where to change trains and how many stops before our desired destination.

Lots of subway maps can be found at Amadeus.