Walking in Waterloo Region

[ookpik]

There's some utility lost in that map as published anyway - what if you're not following a line but still want to see the walking time between stations? For example, from Covent Garden to Tottenam Court Road; or Regent's Park to Bond Street. THAT would be helpful.

The London tube map is a schematic map of the underground network, i.e. it's not drawn to scale. This is intentional in order to provide maximum clarity to tube riders who care less about actual distances than they do about how to get to destinations, the number of stops they need, at which stop to transfer and to which line it should be, etc. The walking distances are intended to address the distortions that the schematic introduces for clarity. (One example, the red line distance between Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road is shown as 9 min. The blue line distance between Oxford Circus and Green Park is shown as 15 min. Yet to my eyes both of those lines look about the same length on the map. So adding the timings does add value if you're walking from station to station above the respective lines. 

OTOH if you want to take a different route such as your examples then you need a regular map that's drawn to scale and shows all pedestrian/cyclist routes including side streets and alleys, etc.

That said, upon reflection it seems to me that while it may be novel to add walking distances to transit maps like the London tube map, perhaps it's too late to become popular. After all anyone with a smartphone could just ask Google Maps to plot the most direct course, estimate the time required to walk or cycle it and then lead them turn by turn to their destination. No paper map can do that.