I'm not sure I properly understand what these maps are visualizing. I'd have expected the London public-transport map to heavily compress adjacent tube stations

I'm not sure I properly understand what these maps are visualizing. I'd have expected the London public-transport map to heavily compress adjacent tube stations and expand tube "dead-zones" but this doesn't appear to be the case. It can take me 10 minutes to get to central but 60 mins to get somewhere equidistant in z2 or z3.