The Oyster card – which allows holders to blend whatever modes of public transport they choose in London – could bring about the demise of the iconic London Underground tube map as designers struggle to find a way to incorporate all of London’s public transport systems onto one – easy to comprehend – reference map.
But, because an Oyster-generation map will need to show all the routes available to card users, the design has become too limited in its scope. Mapmakers have had their work cut out trying to fit all the information into a legible sheet of paper. For years, there have been maps on platform walls of the Overground mixed up with the Underground, yet these are scrappy – even ugly – things in comparison with the classic tube-only map. And although there’s no official Oyster map as yet, the current Overground-Underground maps give some clue: it’s messy.
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