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Walking the tube!

Back in November last year, Transport for London (TfL) released its first official ‘walk the tube’ map. And not only is it surprisingly useful, we reckon at this time of year it’s about to come into peak usage season!

Well, summer’s here (you know the rather warm bits between the grey skies and the rain). This means only one thing for your average London commute. Unbearably hot, stuffy, overcrowded public transport systems.It’s bad enough being up close and personal with that many strangers in the winter, without the fragrant delights of summer!

 

Image source: TFL

A TfL spokesperson in an interview with the Evening Standard commented “What we have seen is that people are desperate for this sort of thing, so we have created it. We focused on central London, zones 1 and 2, and based the times of our journey planner”.

TfL is currently on a mission to promote walking. Their web page ‘Why Walk?’ informs us that [Walking is] ‘quick and reliable, good for your health, good for the planet and good for London’s economy’. OK. The first three points are pretty self explanatory, but we were intrigued by the economic argument…

TfL claim that pedestrians who walk into town centres are more likely to ‘linger longer’ as well as visit more often and apparently spend more per head. Makes sense. You can’t carry as much as you can squeeze in a car boot!

The map installs a confidence, that lots of places really aren’t as far away as you thought! The new map reveals that the shortest walk between tube stations is 2 minutes between Whitechapel and Aldgate East, and the longest is 76 minutes between Canary Wharf and North Greenwich! So you might not do the latter one, but hey, at least you know!

Posted: May 2017

Author: Slate

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