"I'm going to snuggle in bed and read the geekiest book ever written, " I proclaimed and went off to read Transit Maps of the World (2007) by Mark Ovenden. "That is a geeky book," my wife confirmed. But it's a book so wonderfully geeky that it goes all the way around to being cool again.

As the title implies this is a book of maps from transit systems around the world, not being too picky about a strict definition for urban transit thankfully. The book approaches maps of metro systems from an historic and design perspective. The book is divided into six zones with the older and larger systems getting more attention in the early zones, with less detail on the smaller and newer systems (although amazingly some of the systems in Asia that are of recent vintage are growing in leaps and bounds).

Ovenden appreciates the simplicity of a diagramatic map that eschews topography, where the lines branch out at 45 degree angles, the stations are marked with simple white circles and bulls-eyes for transfer stops, and the stations are clearly labeled in a unique font where the words do not cross the lines. The book illustrates that most metro maps in the world are variations on these simple design themes that originated with Harry Beck's famous map of the London Underground. The major exception is the New York MTA map which is geographically based, and I think appropriately so due to NYC's unique topography, although here I disagree with the author (I also found an interesting topographically-correct map of Boston's MBTA system at a website called Radical Cartogaphry).

What I like about this book most is the author's delight in the maps and the maps and the transit systems they represent. There's really a lot of positive commentary in this book and joy in public transit. Even the MBTA, much-maligned by Bostonians, comes off sounding pretty good. He even includes this classic, hand-drawn map of the old Boston MTA system where the elevated tracks are rendered in 3-D.

Here are a list of transit-related websites suggested by the book, plus one that makes up maps for Boston's future that I've been a fan of for some time. I think my fellow transit geeks can waste away many an hour here.

• UrbanRail.Net


• MTA Transit Museum


• London Transport Musuem


• UITP


• The Subway Page


• NYC Subway.org


• Subway Maps


• Subways.net


• The Future MBTA

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Archetypal coffeetable book: Pretty, superficially interesting, glossy pictures, a smidgen of intanational style, and ultimately of much more interest to obsessive freaks than the populace at large. ( )

Some people get sucked in to reality television. Me, I see a map and will zone out on it for hours. I love maps!

Mark Ovenden assembled a book that contains maps of every urban train system in the world. Subway geeks will love it. And plain old map geeks like me as well. Older systems with more history get more pages and a series of maps that show the changing styles of the maps as well as the expansion of the systems. Newer ones get fewer pages. The newest, including ones that are only in the planning stages, get thumbnails. But it’s pretty complete.

(Full review at my blog) ( )

Interesting, but not very useful. ( )

Maps can tell you many things; my main delight in them is the plethora of metadata they are stuffed with, with our without intent thereof.
This book is a rare collection of metro plans from all over the world and in some cases from a stretch of years, showing how map design and network have evolved under a series of years. The map freak can sit and browse, page up and page down with resplendent (and sometimes less so) map design. Or; at least I can.

The only setback: Given the multiple views you can have of maps and the information they convey this book could easily have been twice or trice the size it is. The author focuses on the development of the present day diagram plans and on information design/graphic design issues. How history and urban development can be read through these plans are left unsaid, and even in such a sitting target as Berlin the political implications visible in the maps are left without notice; in p. 13 the interested can see how the 1934 map shows a stop as Adolf Hitler Platz, changing name in the 1960 map to Reichskanzlerplatz, and, finally, to in 1965 it gets the present day name of Theodor Hauss Platz. No mention of this in the text.

Still, it's an impressive book, well worth the money. ( )

I lost over an hour to this book and I have yet to read any of the text! It's great to imagine the cities whose subways are shown here, both the ones you know and the ones you don't. You can see how the systems change over time, how the maps bow to trends in information graphics and differ in usability -- basically, you'll be reminded that every manmade object is a design object. ( )

The title really says it all: this book shows a map from pretty much every metro system in the world, including historical examples of maps from the largest systems. If you're interested in the topic, this book does a good job. ( )

WOW! Stunning and colourful collection of every official subway map on the planet! wfzimmerman is right: the TOC based on metro diagram design principals is so cool - but check out that Page 1 illustration of the entire world as a subway map, now that would make a great wall poster!
Text gives great insight into how the maps have evolved from (in some cases) pretty poor beginnings, to smart, informative and effective pieces of information design. Every art student needs this in their collection.
Amazing to see how many cities have subways and how different, yet similar their maps all are. It's fun to use the book to see where you've been and where you'd like to go!
One drawback: could've done with more pages for those smaller cities at the back (in "Zone 6" - a nice touch to give the book zones like rail systems have for ticketing instead of dull old chapters) as their thumbnail images dont really do some of those maps justice.
That said; a really practical, intelligent and quirky book that I've already had to keep my eyes on to stop it walking out the building! ( )

A beautiful book. I love the TOC which is laid out like a subway map.

Unfortunately, at first glance, one problem is that transit maps of the world tend to be a lot like one another... ( )