Call me a heretic  

Karl Lagerfeld--
now THERE'S a calendar girl I wanna be looking at for twelve months!

....
Mmmmm the other day I was pondering the idea that Niceguy actually is Karl Lagerfeld.
The London map is equally distorted relative to the real geography, but I never found it difficult to navigate, use the system to visit distinct parts of the city and if you're on foot use a normal street index. But if popular opinion says NO its not gonna work even if it is good.

try this calendar
william-holden-caulfield,
In todays society I really have no idea what anyone desires to look at for twelve months. The attached photo is an idea of what the 2011 Pirelli calendar was about and may help determine a persons person viewing pleasure. The Pirelli calendars seem to have some type of "cult following" similar to the Herman Miller picnic posters. It takes all kinds.

Okay
Heretic.

Regarding Vignelli subway map-
Granted, I haven't scrutinized one in about 30 years. But just by looking at the 1972 map (Vignelli's) compared to the 1979 replacement (both shown in link that SDR referred to) I see that Vignelli's shows EIGHTEEN multicolored lines running north from 14th Street, new map shows six. The Vignelli map is a rainbow-colored ball of confusion!
The fact of the matter is, a subway map (or "diagram") that's true to topography offers the user MORE information than a "streamlined" one. More information is better than less information, particularly in the case of an underground system used for the express purpose of accessing what's above ground.
I too find the London map perfectly adequate-- maybe because each line isn't represented by a riot of rainbow colors, I dunno.

The tight kerning doesn't...
The tight kerning doesn't kill me. I prefer the characters not to touch however.
What kills it for me is the LEADING! The lack of leading AND the tight kerning makes it chaotic, which is actually a hard vibe to achieve with Helvetica.
I don't like it either.