Mention of the Paris Metro almost never fails to come up when Toronto's future transit plans are discussed. Why can't we strive to be like Paris, so the argument goes. Subways! Subways! Subways!

There's no question it'd be nice to have a subway system even half as good as the Parisian Metro, even as it's completely unrealistic to compare a system that was first built in 1900, some 50 years before Toronto mustered up the civic will to get the Yonge Line built.

But given that we do compare all the time, this little exercise by Sean Galbraith will prove interesting to even those with only a passing interest in the incessant debate about transit expansion in Toronto. It's quite simple really: this map shows what the Paris Metro would look like if it serviced Toronto.

The density of stops is obviously incredible, particularly in the core of the city. Toronto doesn't really need this level of service, as nice as it might be to imagine without a price tag associated with it (not to mention the years upon years of construction and traffic woes that would come with such a subway project).

It's also worth noting how downtown-centric the system is. While there are lines that run to suburban regions (still better than Toronto), the density of stops is focused, as Galbraith notes, south of Eglinton. The Paris Metro might not be tailor made for Toronto's transit needs (no surprise there), but it does expose how far we have to go before our transit system is envy-worthy.

Check here for a high res version of the map.