In article ,
(Recliner) wrote:

On Sun, 26 Mar 2017 07:25:08 -0500,
wrote:

In article ,
(Roland Perry) wrote:

Not only do I have a brain that happens to work in that way (in
effect I have a "photographic memory" for walking/driving routes),
I've been using the tube for 50yrs. In the case of Kings Cross, I
followed the design and building with a fine tooth comb. Here's my
much-discussed guess at the final configuration, long before they
started building:

http://www.perry.co.uk/images/kx-composite.jpg

Yet from the stairs beyond the end of platform 8, labelled Kings Cross
Mainline (ECML) in your diagram, the signs at the bottom of the stairs
direct passengers to turn right for the Victoria Line while turning left
is a much shorter walking route. This is as daft as imagining that
one-way streets reduce traffic.

Roland has often pointed out that there are sometimes better ways
through the Kings Cross underground maze than the signposted routes,
which seem designed to spread people out, in order to reduce
over-crowding, rather than to give them the shortest route. They also,
in some cases, lead to step-free routes.

Hence my reference to the fallacy that (longer) one-way streets reduce
traffic. Sending people on longer routes creates congestion, especially when
so spectacularly longer than the direct route. Not so long ago they
recognised this and reversed the direction arrow I was referring to. The
change was then undone.

It undermines faith in direction signing when people discover they are being
sent on long detours.

--
Colin Rosenstiel