How metro maps evolved

At the latest since I first played the awesome Mini Metro game, I’ve been interested in metros. Particularly their maps. They sit right at the intersection of urbanism, public transport and graphic design. Three topics I’m passionate about. That’s why I immediately clicked on this video when it got recommended to me: It’s a talk by Mark Ovenden, a transit historian who’s been obsessed with the topic since he was in school. He’s the author of a coffee table book that definitely goes on my wishlist. In the video, he travels through the history of metro maps since this form of transportation got invented over 150 years ago. And how they evolved together with the system itself. It’s exceptionally hard to create a metro map that is on the one hand simple enough to lay all the necessary information out cleanly. On the other hand, it should show enough detail that commuters know how they have to navigate the system. With Harry Beck’s design for the map of the London Tube, the modern metro…