A Bigger Down Under

I’ve sometimes heard people try to argue that Australia is not a continent.  They usually say this after looking at a Mercator projection map and remarking that it’s hardly bigger than Greenland, so why should it be a continent?  It may come as a surprise to these people that not only is Australia a continent, but the United Nations just officially made it bigger.  Much bigger.

With certain exceptions, continents are generally defined as the limits of a very large landmass and its associated underwater continental shelf.  As such, it’s usually the limit of this continental shelf that determines where a continent ends and the deep sea begins.  Since continental shelves can hold huge quantities of oil, natural gas, and other resources, delineating their borders can be an important and politically charged subject.

The Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas, which came into effect in 1994, established rules for how countries could claim underwater continental shelves as part of their territory.  Based on these rules, Australia laid claim to 2.8 million square kilometers of new underwater territory, and submitted its claim to the United Nations for ratification.  On April 21, 2008, the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, made up of “experts in the field of geology, geophysics or hydrology,” declared for Australia. 

Australia’s new territory is anything but insubstantial.  The 2.5 million square kilometers of continental shelf the UN awarded equal nearly one third of the country’s land area.  The area includes territory south of Tasmania, toward New Zealand, and out into the Indian Ocean.  It also includes territory that adjoins Australia’s claims in Antarctica.  According to Australia’s Minister for Resources and Energy, the new area is “five times the size of France, seven times the size of Germany and almost 10 times the size of New Zealand.”  Click on the header picture above for a full map of the new territory.

The UN decision gives the Australian government the right to drill for oil and natural gas in its new territories.  Perhaps more importantly, it gives them the authority the deny the right to drill to others.  This decision could prove to have long-lasting economic repercussions in Australia’s energy sector. According to one official, “a larger continental shelf means a larger canvas upon which we can paint our resource and energy future … We really know very little about the perceptivity of these areas, however, and increasing that knowledge will … encourage explorers into these areas.”

Zoning Out

Today is May 1.  To most folks around the world, that means Labor Day or May Day.  To most Americans, it’s just another day.  Except if you live in Washington, DC, where May 1, 2008, means Meter Day.

On October 17, 2007, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty announced that the city’s cabs would be switching from the old zone system, established during the Great Depression, to a meter-based fare system.  To those unfamiliar with DC’s zone-based fare system, it’s a simple concept: the city is divided into zones, and taxi fares are calculated based on the zones covered rather than a true distance covered.  Click on the picture above to see the full zone map from the website of the DC Taxicab Commission.

The major benefit of the system was that riders weren’t penalized for their cabs getting stuck in DC’s notorious traffic, and drivers had an incentive to take riders on the fastest route to their destination because the on-the-ground distance or drive time didn’t matter.  The downside, though, was that visitors to the District had no knowledge of the zones and were sometimes (perhaps frequently) cheated by unscrupulous cabbies.  Some riders (myself included) are also guilty of taking a cab to a zone line and walking a couple of extra blocks to save a buck or two instead of crossing the line and incurring an additional charge.

Cab drivers in DC have generally been opposed to the idea of meters–partly becuase they can be pricey and the drivers will have to provide them at their own expense, and partly because it alters a system that, quite frankly, most DC residents had grown accustomed to.  The District has required that all cabs be running on meters by today, and fines for noncompliance are as high as $1000. 

Regardless of the outcome, it looks like the familiar zone maps in the back of each DC cab are going the way of the dodo.  Farwell, zones!

A Vintage Vignelli for Nostalgic New Yorkers

A classic New York City subway map has recently been re-issued in a limited edition run to raise money for charity.  As chronicled at The Map Room and in today’s New York Times, the 1972 subway map by Italian designer Massimo Vignelli caused quite a stir in the Big Apple.

Previous subway maps had emphasized surface features such as parks and streets to help riders find their destinations and navigate the complex system.  But as the system expanded, maps became cluttered and more confusing to read.  Vignelli’s design marked a radical shift away from the realistic depiction of surface features.  Vignelli’s map was more abstract, nearly eliminating surface features altogether.  Trains ran in straight lines and only turned in 45- and 90-degree angles.

Vignelli’s map was both praised as a work of graphic design and critized as a poor navigational tool.  Evan as abstract subway maps became common in other large metropolitan areas, New Yorkers had difficulty adjusting to the design.  In 1979, the city finally relented and returned surface features to the map, where they remain to this day.

Now, in association with Men’s Vogue, Vignelli is releasing a limited run of 500 prints of his iconic subway map, including updates to reflect additions and changes to the system since the original publication.  Interested cartophiles should hurry and purchase their Vignelli map