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I have heard similar stories of mis-interpretaing real space due to maps. My favourite is the story of 19th century 'negotiations' between an up-coming Russia and a declining Ottoman Turkey in which Russia demanded the cession by O-Turkey of the province of Abkhazia. The Turkish delegates who had been summoned to the Czar's palace had little idea of their empire, where Abkhazia was or how big a loss it would represent to O-Turkey. It's actually 8,600 sq kilometers, or 40% of a Wales for those who prefer more traditional area measurements. However there was a map of Abkhazia hanging on the Czar's palace walls, alongside a similalrly-sized map of the palace gardens - no scale to either map, although the latter was probably at a somewhat larger scale. Based on these 2 maps the Ottoman delegation concluded they were ceding an insignificant piece of territory.
I've also read that the Metropolitan Railway, busy on the 1920s extending the London Underground out into rural Middlesex, promoted the Beck map heavily over more topographically-accurate maps for this very reason, because it made the commute from outer N W London look much shorter than in reality.
Map names can also be made intentionally 'misleading' - in W W One, UK newspaper maps of the front lines in France included places like Agincourt and Crecy - places totally irrelevant to the 1914 armies, but significant (to a more historically-literate generation) in UK-France history, so as to stir up feelings of patriotism.
Then we have the tales of UK holidaymakers going to Spain who had no idea where they'd been, what direction Spain was from the UK, 'because they'd flown', with no map to relate to. Or the foreign visitors to London who, having got a taxi to their hotel several miles out, then get a bus - any bus that comes - to the city centre. Then, when time to return to the hotel, they realise they've neglected to note the route number they came in on.
Dr Hillary Shaw
School of Business, Management and Marketing
Harper Adams University College
Newport
Shropshire
TF10 8NB
School of Business, Management and Marketing
Harper Adams University College
Newport
Shropshire
TF10 8NB
-----Original Message-----
From: J. B. Post <[email protected]>
To: maphist <[email protected]>
Sent: Fri, 20 May 2011 13:16
Subject: [MapHist] FW: People believe subway maps over reality [Wash. Post]
From: J. B. Post <[email protected]>
To: maphist <[email protected]>
Sent: Fri, 20 May 2011 13:16
Subject: [MapHist] FW: People believe subway maps over reality [Wash. Post]
This is a MapHist list message (when you hit 'reply' you're replying to the
whole list)
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-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Porter [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2011 2:11 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: People believe subway maps over reality [Wash. Post]
From: Andrew Porter [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2011 2:11 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: People believe subway maps over reality [Wash. Post]
People believe subway maps over reality
By David Alpert
Maps
matter. Metro’s and London’s transit maps
present distorted geographies in order to make the system’s organization
clearer. They have become iconic, but the way they present distances shapes
people’s understanding of space and distance in their region.
An
NYU study found that distances on such maps affect
people’s travel choices much more than actual distances.
Riders on the London Tube who had choices between multiple transfers were twice
as likely to take the route that was shorter on the map but longer in real
life. Even people who ride every weekday did this.
This
reinforces an important idea we’ve discussed before: The map forms people’s views
of a city. To many people, the Metro map is the mental image of DC and the
surrounding area. Geographic distortions may be appropriate to help a map be
simpler, but designers should consider carefully the effect of each such
change.
[Continue reading
David Alpert’s post at Greater Greater Washington.]
David Alpert is founder and editor of Greater Greater Washington. The Local Blog Network is a group of bloggers from
around the D.C. region who have agreed to make regular contributions to All
Opinions Are Local.
By David Alpert | 03:33 PM ET, 05/18/2011
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