Fantastic Moscow Metro Map

About 3 lifetimes ago, I had the pleasure of living in the former Soviet Union for a few years, which is truly where my love affair with public transportation began. My arrival in Moscow on July 17, 1996 was my first experience abroad (excluding a trip to Niagara Falls). Small-town country boy that I was, I remember being blown away by all the transportation options available. Because I lived in the city center, I almost never missed having a car - it was simply not necessary. Most of the time I walked to work 4 blocks away - but if I was running late, I could hop on 1) a trolley-bus (powered by overhead electric lines), 2) a regular diesel-powered bus ("avtobus"), 3) a "fixed-route taxi" ("marshrutka", smaller cash-only buses operating on fixed routes, like other buses), or even a regular taxi-cab. Plenty of choices. I thought at the time that this rich transit environment was a uniquely Russian/Soviet phenomenon.

What I came to realize later was that many of the things I once considered unique to Russian city life were simply urban, European norms. European cities are denser than their American counterparts. Europe's largest urban areas grew slowly over centuries, whereas America's grew much more rapidly since the 1800's, and grew explosively (in area) once the automobile became common. For nearly a century, American cities have been built to accomodate the automobile. Not so much in Europe. In Russia, prior to its Soviet-led industrialization and urbanization in the 20th century, some 90% of the population were still living on farms in 1917. Few Russians had private cars prior to the fall if the USSR in 1991, so their cities are based on the denser, European model.

In addition to the above-mentioned transportation options, Russian cities are laced with other transport networks as well, including:

• Trams ("tramvai", running on fixed rails, sharing streets with cars)
• Subways (more on this later)
• Electric-powered commuter trains ("elektrichka")
• Inter-City Trains ("poyezd")
• and in some cities, networks of Water Taxis and Hydrofoils ("Rokyeta") serving fixed routes.

Having spent a fair amount of time in Moscow during those years, I naturally fell in love with the Moscow Metro, arguably the finest subway on Earth. It is among the world's largest in terms of lines, miles, stations, and passengers, and many of it's stations are architectural masterpieces - veritable art galleries covered in marble, mosaics, statuary and other art. During the Soviet era, during which the system was begun and largely completed, authorities lavished funding on the Metro to create a symbol of national pride.

Poking around the official Moscow Metro site the other day, I happened across a fantastic map that allows you to select beginning and ending points for your journey, and will display the time required for your trip. The map also displays details on each station when you click on the station name. Give it a try here.

It's intuitive, informative, and highly useful (though I might suggest they add street maps of the neighborhoods surrounding each station, which the DC Metro site DOES include). I would love to see DC's Metro use the Moscow site as a model for their own trip planner, which is useful but in my opinion not as intutive - a picture is worth a thousand words, after all. Enjoy!

"Careful! Doors Closing. Next Stop: Revolution Square."