On Thu, 2 Sep 2004 10:04:26 +0100, Annabel Smyth
wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote to uk.transport.london on Wed, 1 Sep 2004:

I find labelling by terminus completely unhelpful - unless you know the
network well enough to know the terminus of every line (which most
Londoners probably do, but visitors certainly don't), it means you need a
map to interpret the signs.

Oh no, it's much easier! As a young adult, I lived in Paris before I
lived in London, and had enormous difficulty working out how the London
system worked, compared to the extraordinarily easy Paris system, which
labels by terminus.

Hmm - interesting. The first time I visited Paris I needed to get from
St Lazare to Gare du Lyon and got hopelessly lost. For some utterly
stupid reason I had assumed that the Metro directional signing would be
like the Tube. Wrong.

Although I am very familiar with the LU network and really do not need
to have a map at all to get round I have got used to the Paris way of
doing things and although I need a map I can orientate myself very
quickly when scooting about by Metro.

Doesn't help that I have enormous difficulty
knowing my left from my right, or my east from my west.... I can just
about manage north and south, but that's it!

I don't have this difficulty but I did find Tokyo immensely difficult to
get round because of the very confusing and inconsistent designs of
street maps, street naming and building numbering. That was even before
the challenge of even trying to understand kanji characters. Thankfully
there is English used on the main elements of the public transport
network. I didn't venture anywhere by bus but the subway and surface
rail system was exceptionally good.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!