Le Metro

September 8th, 2017

Detail at the Odéon Metro stop

Part of a mosaic map at Bercy Metro stop (I think)

I love the Metro.  For the first 15 years or so that I lived in Boston, I lived somewhere along the Red Line (Charles, Porter/Harvard, Davis, and then Porter/Harvard again).  Since moving from Cambridge in 2003, I haven't had regular access to a subway system until this year.  I had forgotten how much I love it.  And even people who do not ride subways should love them because they confer so many benefits on a city and its citizens.

 Let me count the ways:
1.  I love that subways are energy-efficient and environmentally friendly.
2.  I love that they naturally encourage high-density living.

Dupleix station (above ground)

3.  I love that they avoid traffic snarls and stoplights and suboptimally-positioned roads by slipping under them.
4.  I love that they also mitigate those traffic snarls by getting people off the roads.
5.  I love that I am forced to walk, at least a bit every day, to get to and from the stations and up and down the stairs.
6.  I love that I get to see what people are reading every day.  (Admittedly, this advantage has been waning in the digital age.  When I first started riding the Red Line, reading material was always in evidence.   I might notice how intently the guy across the car was studying the box scores from yesterday, or be assured that the classics were not dead if Moby Dick and 1984 were both being read by other commuters near me.  Now it's mostly a sea of cell phones.)
7.  I love the ads, from both an aesthetic and informational perspective.

Port d'Orleans station

8.  I love that I get to see what people are wearing every day.   
9.  I love that one interacts with other inhabitants of the city regularly, even if it's only a glance or a small smile or a tap on the shoulder for a forgotten umbrella or a shared eyeroll after an announced delay.  
10.  I love that subways have a democratizing and leveling effect, the same subway ridden on by rich and poor, black and white, native-born and foreign-born, resident and tourist. 
11.  I love the overall design aesthetic of the stations (e..g., subway tiles, wrought-iron girding, pop-art-style signage).
12.  I love that I don't have to find a parking spot. 

13.  Finally, I love that someone else is doing the driving.

Stylized, brightly-colored Paris subway map