Zip with list output instead of tuple
If you are zipping more than 2 lists (or even only 2, for that matter), a readable way would be:
[list(a) for a in zip([1,2,3], [4,5,6], [7,8,9])]
This uses list comprehensions and converts each element in the list (tuples) into lists.
You almost had the answer yourself. Don't use map instead of zip. Use map AND zip.
You can use map along with zip for an elegant, functional approach:
list(map(list, zip(a, b)))
zip returns a list of tuples. map(list, [...]) calls list on each tuple in the list. list(map([...]) turns the map object into a readable list.