I spend my fair share of time—and, come to think of it, many other people’s fair shares as well—on the road these days, usually for work. In that regard, the iPhone is one of the best things that’s happened to me: even without GPS, Google Maps is a great help in finding your way around, and Safari means that more detailed help is never more than a quick search away.
We’ve covered iPhone travel tips before, but I thought it worth pointing you to MetrolpoliPhone, a site that collects subway maps from cities around the world and presents them in a convenient, iPhone-friendly format. So whether you’re in Amsterdam, Montreal, or Washington D.C., a metro map is never more than a quick tap away. The one potential shortcoming I can see is the lack of a signal while underground, so you should probably make sure to load up the site before you head into the depths (or, alternatively, save the image for the cities you travel to the most in a folder on your Mac and sync it over).
There are thirty cities currently listing with, according to the developer, more on the way, along with bus maps.
[via iPhone World]
If you are in Washington DC, this will only work if you are outside of the tunnels and underground stations. I'm not sure, but I think the "brain trust" that runs WMATA (owns Metrorail and Metro Bus) either has signed an exclusive deal with Verizon to provide cellphone access in the system or they won't allow other providers to put up cell repeaters in the tunnels and underground stations. Either way, WMATA needs to fix this problem so that their riders can use any cellular service while using the subway ... especially in the event of an emergency.