This year marks the 150th anniversary of the London Underground, the oldest subterranean railway in the world. A major exhibition at the London Transport Museum opens this week, celebrating one of the most distinctive elements of the Tube – design. The multicoloured lines on the iconic map make order out of chaos, and also provide inspiration for artists and scientists alike. Here are some of our favourite re-imaginings.

The Real-time Tube Map

This fascinating map plots the live location of each train on the Tube network, using departure data from Transport for London. Matthew Somerville created it in 2010 at a ‘hack’ weekend – a gathering of designers and web developers who create projects from scratch over several days.

The History of Music Tube Map

Pop, rock, punk and funk are all there on this brilliant Music on the Tube map, which charts 100 years of popular music thanks to the efforts of the folks on the Guardian’s Culture Vulture blog. Each station is an artiste, and it’s fun to see where Michael Jackson intersects with Basement Jaxx and Bob Dylan links up with The Rolling Stones.

The Geographically Accurate Tube Map

Have you noticed that stations on the London Underground’s map can appear to be in different parts of the capital, yet are minutes away by foot? The map is designed to be easily read and understood, but this geographically accurate version from Project Mapping reveals the true locations of the stops, relative to each other.

The Electric Tube Map

The recently-completed Overground network (the orange line on the map) can take you in a complete ring around the city, albeit with several changes in between. Taking this as artistic inspiration, The Electric Tube uses concentric circles for the orbital sections of the Circle Line and Overground network and straight lines for the Central and Piccadilly Lines. It accurately shows where each train line connects, and uses a sine wave for the Northern Line’s Bank branch which crosses the Circle Line no fewer than three times. The map was the brainchild of Oliver O’Brien from the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at University College London.

 The Bikes on the Tube Map

Bicycles are only permitted on certain parts of the Tube (mainly lines outside of the centre, such as the Circle and District lines) and at certain times (outside of rush hours). This handy map from Transport for London points them out, as well as detailing the lines on which carrying a fold-up bike is allowed while a regular bike is not. An invaluable resource for cyclists wanting to take the Underground to speed up part of a journey.

Find more events to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Tube.

On sale from 10 December, the limited edition Oyster card features the Tube’s shiny new 150th anniversary logo, set against an attractive background of vintage Underground designs. You can use the cards in the same way as usual, either as pay as you go or by adding your Travelcard to it, and they will be available to buy at London Underground stations and TfL Travel Information Centres. The special Oyster cards come hot on the heels of the success of the cards created for the Royal Wedding and the Diamond Jubilee. Grab one while you can – it might be 150 years before they make another one!

Visitors to London from the UK and overseas can buy visitor Oyster cards in advance, although they may not feature the limited edition design.

Transport for London is launching two limited edition Oyster cards to celebrate the exciting summer ahead. The special Oyster cards follow the popular Royal Wedding Oyster cards last April.

From mid-May, an Oyster card featuring an official portrait of The Queen will be available at all London underground ticket offices; selected Oyster ticket machines within zone 1; and TfL Travel Information Centres.

The second card celebrates the special events taking place this summer, including the Olympic and Paralympic Games, The Big Lunch and the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. It is expected to be available from mid-June.

Want more? The official Diamond Jubilee china is on sale now, and two sets of Diamond Jubilee stamps have been issued, with another one to come!

This week’s Londony video comes courtesy of Transport for London, and reveal the joys of cycling in (a very sunny, quiet, rather traffic-free!) London.

It features Dermot O’Leary, Edith Bowman and three other Londoners called Beth, Mohamed and Kay, along with Mark Ronson’s new single “The Bike Song“.

Let us know if you’re planning on doing any peaceful cycling like this in London this weekend…

Londoners can now register as members for the Mayor’s flagship Barclays Cycle Hire scheme. The bikes will be available to members from next Friday, 30 July.

The Barclays Cycle Hire bikes are located at docking stations throughout London. The first 30 minutes of your ride is free but you’ll need to be a paid-up member to access the bikes in the first place.

A membership key costs £3 with membership costs at £1 for a 24 hour membership, £5 for seven days and £45 for an annual membership.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said:

“I call on Londoners to sign up and become pioneer members of this fantastic new addition to our transport system. I know that in time our scheme will become a new London icon and enable many more people to cycle in our magnificent city. I look forward to seeing cycle hire and superhighways working in tandem to make London a cyclised city.”

Sign up for a daily, weekly or annual membership today at www.tfl.gov.uk/barclayscyclehire