15 of the world's most complex subway route map: Beijing Shanghai-listed Metro-IT information
Tokyo subway route map as dazzling, but compared with New York and Paris, it was dwarfed by the think so--at least a group of theoretical physicists and mathematicians.
France CEA-Saclay Institute of Riccardo Gallotti and Marc Barthelemy and United Kingdom Mason Porter, a researcher at Harvard University has recently undertaken a project, estimates the average person can receive a maximum traffic map information. In the journal Science Advances (scientific progress) writes, urban transportation systems more and more developed, traffic route map and more complicated, they want to know whether these wiring diagrams "beyond our limits of cognition". If the answer is Yes, then in the near future, electronic map for city residents and foreign tourists, help will be greatly enhanced.
Researchers analyzed the world's 15 largest subway route map (sorted by number of sites). If passengers need to travel from point a to point b, they all can choose the fastest one in the line. Behavior studies should consider ordinary single working memory storage of up to 4 pieces of information-the start point, end point and the two interchange site.
In accordance with the "cumulative" complexity classification of sorts, became New York subway map worthy of the first, won the "most complex urban transport systems in the world" on the throne. Hong Kong subway line at the bottom:
1. New York, United States
2. Paris, France
3. Tokyo, Japan
4. London, United Kingdom
5. Madrid, Spain
6. Barcelona, Spain
7. Moscow, Russia
8. Seoul, Korea
9. Shanghai, China
10. Mexico City, Mexico
11. Berlin, Germany
12. Chicago, United States
13. Osaka, Japan
14. Beijing, China
15. Hong Kong, China
Studies have found that ordinary people can only process up to 250 sites information, and 8 bits of information. New York subway transfer to site a total of 161, if a bus transfer twice, all adds up to 8.1 the amount of bits, than the cognitive limits of ordinary people. Subway transfer site in Paris, Tokyo, London, is 78, 56, 48, information about 6 bits.
So overall, passengers in a big city subway control paper subway map also reluctantly planning to transfer routes. But after outbound passengers have to take connecting bus, this is really fucked.
In New York, Paris and Tokyo, for example, researchers in the Metro data based on data bus lines, and soon concluded that the answer--by subway and bus passengers transfer to site information to be processed well above average cognitive ability. Three City subway and bus transfer the number of sites was 8461, 4292, and 1831, over 80% route has exceeded the limit that we can afford.
"This just points out where the problem lies, multimodal transport system is too complex, route map is also updated," Barthelemy said in a message to CityLab.
Very few practical transport map and complex than subway route map of bus route map is the real issue, the city's public transport network is too large. Researchers hope to see more convenient bus route map, many designers also proposed the same idea-such as San Francisco Muni map using lines of color depth as they are updated to indicate the train frequency is a good approach.
Muni maps. Photo: network
Studies eventually came to the conclusion that appearance of the future, we will see a lot of APP:
Analysts pointed out that people travel in the city too large amount of information that need to be addressed, especially in the big cities, so we need to seek the assistance of the new tool. Not only do we need to redesign the route map and transportation network, in the form of new presents to the reader, but also research and development of information technology tools to help travelers ease the processing burden. Transportation agencies, launched the service is a critical step for the convenience.
But the study is not comprehensive: each day a total of 5.6 million people ride the New York subway, 2.1 million people ride buses, they also didn't mind explosion because of the complexity of the existing lines. A scientific map design and smart navigation technology can bring convenience to the city is unknown, but if we had more choices, we might be able to change at any time, have more freedom.
世界上最复杂的15张地铁线路图：北京上海上榜 - 地铁 - IT资讯
东京的地铁线路图看得人眼花缭乱，但与纽约与巴黎的相比，确是小巫见大巫——至少有一群理论物理学家与数学家这么认为。
法国CEA-Saclay研究所研究员Riccardo Gallotti及Marc Barthelemy与英国哈佛大学研究员Mason Porter最近共同开展了一个项目，测算普通人最多能接受多少交通地图信息。他们在期刊杂志《Science Advances（科学进展）》中这样写道，城市交通系统越来越发达，交通线路图也愈发繁复，他们想知道这些线路图究竟是否会“超出我们的认知极限”。如果答案是肯定的，那么在不久的将来，电子地图对城市居民与外来游客而言用处将大大增强。
研究人员分别分析了全球15个最庞大的地铁交通线路图（按站点数量排序）。假设乘客需要从A地前往B地，他们要在所有可能的线路中选出最快的一条。结合行为研究学一同考虑，普通人单次工作记忆至多能贮存4条信息——起点、终点及两个换乘站点。
按照“累积而得”的复杂程度分级排序，纽约地铁线路图成为了当之无愧的第一，夺得“全球最复杂城市交通系统”的宝座。香港地铁则排在末位：
1.纽约，美国
2.巴黎，法国
3.东京，日本
4.伦敦，英国
5.马德里，西班牙
6.巴塞罗那，西班牙
7.莫斯科，俄罗斯
8.首尔，韩国
9.上海，中国
10.墨西哥城，墨西哥
11.柏林，德国
12.芝加哥，美国
13.大阪，日本
14.北京，中国
15.香港，中国
研究发现，普通人最多只能加工250个站点信息，与8比特的信息量相当。纽约地铁换乘站点共计161个，若一次乘车换乘两次，所有路线的信息量相加达8.1比特，已经超过了普通人的认知极限。巴黎、东京、伦敦的地铁换乘站点则分别是78、56、48个，信息量约为6比特。
所以总的来说，乘客在大城市搭乘地铁时，对照纸质版地铁线路图也可以勉强规划换乘路线。不过要是乘客出站后还得搭乘接驳公交，这下可真的够呛。
以纽约、巴黎及东京为例，研究人员在地铁线路数据的基础上增加公交线路数据后，很快就得出了答案——先后乘坐地铁与公交出行的乘客需要处理的换乘站点信息量大大超过了常人的认知能力。三座城市的地铁及公交换乘站点数量分别是8461、4292与1831个，超过80%的出行路线均已突破了我们所能承受的极限。
“这恰恰指出了问题所在，联运系统过于复杂，线路图也是时候更新了，”Barthelemy在写给CityLab的邮件中这样说道。
实用的联运地图少之又少，而远比地铁线路图复杂的公交线路图才是真正的问题，城市的公交网络实在太过庞大。研究人员希望能看到更加方便实用的公交线路图，不少设计者也提出了相同的理念——如旧金山更新后的Muni地图利用线条颜色深浅来指示车次频率就是个不错的做法。
Muni地图。图片来源：网络
研究最终得出的结论是，未来我们将看到大量出行APP的出现：
分析指出，人们在城市中出行时需要处理的信息量过于庞大，在大城市中尤其如此，因此我们需要寻求新的协助工具。我们不仅需要重新设计线路图与交通网络图，以全新形式呈现给读者，同时还需研发信息技术工具，帮助出行者减轻信息处理负担。对交通运输机构而言，推出便民服务无疑是至关重要的一步。
不过该研究并不全面：每天总计有560万人搭乘纽约地铁出行，210万人搭乘公交，他们也并没有因为线路过于繁复而头脑爆炸。更科学的地图设计与更智能的导航技术究竟能否给城市出行带来便利还是未知数，但如果我们拥有更多选择，我们或许能随时换乘，拥有更多出行自由。