Animated Subway Maps Transforms into Actual Geography Reveal Astonishing Gaps

Animated Subway Maps Transforms into Actual Geography Reveal Astonishing Gaps – Check the GIFs:

Transit maps are schematic diagrams which illustrate the routes and stations covered by a public transport system using simplified colored lines and symbols. Subway maps users are definitely familiar with such maps with a different color per each line and dots for stations. The network of intersected lines may be good for indicative purposes but they are not actually quite similar to the actual geography they represent, which is way more complicated. To get the idea, you might need to take a look at the animated subway maps created by members of the “DataIsBeautiful” community on Reddit.

The “DataIsBeautiful” is an open discussion thread on Reddit which is dedicated for “visualizations that effectively convey information”. Some members of this community decided to make GIFs which compare the subway maps of world cities to the actual geography, and the results were quite interesting. The idea was triggered by one member who utilized data from Google Maps, Wikipedia, and the official Subway Map from Berlin, to create an animation of Berlin Subway map converting into the city’s actual geographical map using Adobe After Effects. Then other members followed with similar animated maps of Paris, London, New York, and Tokyo, among other cities. Here, check them for yourself.