Free maps come at a price

I have this habit of wanting to have a map of those places that I am visiting a bit longer than a weekend. Since I am staying in Lund for four months it started itching from day three. It appeared that it is quite hard to buy a decent map of Lund. The tourist office is closed during the weekends which is when I am in need of a map the most. So I tried a supermarket, a few book stores, and a 7eleven. Non of these sold maps of Lund. At the 7eleven the shopkeepstress suggested to try the Lundia hotel down the road. There, at a friendly receptionist helped me out with a small tourist map inside a brochure about the cultural events in Lund. It covered only the inner city and it would do for the particular occasion, but the itching did not go away. Tough luck. I had to do without and so I did. In the end, just roaming about has its charms as well.

On some spots there are these boards with partial maps of the area where you are. Like this one at one of the entry points of Ideon.

And often, you will find maps on boards on main entry roads to a city. During one of the urban hikes that I undertook to get acquainted with Lund, I stumbled upon such a board on Getingenvägen. This particular one also held a map dispenser:


You push the button with the red circle around it and out comes one map of Lund. A decent one, with not just the centre of town, but all its quarters as well and even small maps of the surrounding villages. It includes the bus lines, a street name index, the important buildings, the miljöstation, the återvinningsbehålllare and the återvinningscentral.

All that for free. Gratis.

By the way : a colleague told me that the word 'gratis' that exists in a number of languages, originates from Sweden.

Let me tell you what you already know, but keep forgetting: few things in life are actually are for free. If you don't have to pay for it, then that means that somebody else is paying for it. Or, put in a different way, if it's for free, it still comes at a price.

So, who pays for these maps? Well, a number of people actually. When the map is disentangled or downloaded from the machine. This is what you see:

And when you swap it:

and when you unfold it, first this

and then you see the entire map.

So, I assume that the companies whose advertisements are printed on the back of the map
have paid so that I can get a map for free. Am I complaining about this? Initially not. Is this not great service to travellers who enter the city, paid for by some of the companies in the city? Free maps at the push of a button 24 hours a day - until the machine is empty of course. Then I looked a bit further an saw this:

There were several other copies in different states of decay lying around and I remembered that I noticed a crumbled map by the side of the road when I walked to Nova Lund a week earlier. At that time, I wondered where the map came from and why somebody would simply throw away a decent map like that. Now, I conclude that the fact that somebody else has payed for it, makes it easier for the users to throw them away. What do you think?

PS I. A really interesting and fun to read book about maps is How to ly with maps by Mark Monnier

PS II. You and I can use blogger / blogspot for free. You'll find out who is paying for it when you start one or when you look around other blogs and discover it.