I’ve been in England for a bit,
doing some walking, among other things.
I arrived in London at the tail end of the Olympics, which was followed
by the Paralympics, an event that stirred British hearts even more than the
real thing.
And as part of this, Transport for
London (the latest incarnation of what most of us still think of as London
Transport) published some rather nifty and stylish maps to help non-Londoners
get around. That’s one of them
above at the top. I like that
faux-3D effect (I imagine there may be a proper cartographic word for it), but
here’s the cover of one of them, which I like less.
It raises two observations. One: of course variations of the phrase
“Why not walk it?” pass my lips all the time. All else being equal, and I know it seldom is, I’d much rather walk than take a tube or bus. On the
other hand, coming from Transport for London, doesn’t it seem a bit
defeatist? Like a restaurant with
a sign in the window saying, “Why not eat at home?”
And two, I know the rest of the
world thinks of British men as epicene fops, but we don’t have to reinforce
that stereotype, do we? Couldn’t
they have found a walker to put on the front of the maps who looked a little
more butch, and for that matter a little more British? No, no, I don’t have anyone particular
in mind.
