Submission – New Official Transit Map of Plauen, Germany by Moritz Köhler

June 19, 2018
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Submitted by Moritz, who says:

I’m an architecture student from Zurich who has also been a (public) transport and map geek for quite some time now. The town of Plauen in Germany has had a quite horrible map for its tram and bus system, so I created a new one privately, which I then offered to them for use. They indeed agreed to pay for it (which they haven’t done yet, but I’ll be on that …), so I sent the files to them and the map is used there now at the stations, in a by the transit agency slightly altered form – they just couldn’t help it to add some unnecessary icons and mix fonts, but to be honest, I’m not keen on discussing with them over that over hundres of kilometres of distance, so I’ll just let it be. However, as I’m a fan of your map reviews and the blog in general, I’d like to hear your opinion on my (original) work! (I’m doing this via mobile and don’t quite understand whether I can add documents to this text, so I’ll send you separately: the old map, which can somehow still be found on the operator’s website; the new one (which shows bus line B slightly different because they changed the route after I finished work); and a photo one of my relatives in Plauen took from the altered version hanging at a tram stop.) I used a 30-degree grid as it allowed me to make a visual hook (literally) out of the lines going to the south-east while avoiding unnecessary curves in the lines after they successively leave the hook. Also, it makes it possible to set the type at an angle at which it is still easily readable. I included the railway and night bus lines, which the original map doesn’t (for the night buses, they had an even worse separate map which also still can be found on their website). On the colours of the tram and bus lines I didn’t have any influence. The “lace” pattern at the edge of the map is derived from the station markers and seemed adequate to me because lace is the only thing this 60’000 inhabitants city is somehow renowned for (they replaced it by a boring simple edge, though). What do you think?

Transit Maps says:

As seen in the first image above, the previous version of Plauen’s transit map was a very dowdy, old fashioned – almost generic – diagram, with some odd angles and overpowering accessibility icons. It’s not hideous, but neither is it particularly memorable.

Moritz’s map, however, is definitely memorable – with swooping curves and a strong, dynamic, 30-degree axis that underpins the whole map. It perhaps simplifies things a little too much in some parts: while the stop order on the A/Ax bus route is the same on both versions, knowing that the bus takes a little one-way detour through Chrieschwitz is actually useful information to have.

The strict adherence to the 30-degree angles also causes a few spacing problems here and there, especially because all the main line railway lines are dead straight lines which can force some stations and their labels out of position somewhat. I’d personally prefer to have the six stops at the northern end of Line 5 evenly spaced, for example, even if that meant the rail lines had to bend a little bit more. The rail lines are subsidiary information on a local map like this, and shouldn’t really bend the more important parts of the map to their needs quite so much. It’s specially noticeable along the main horizontal axis of the map: the stops on Lines 1/3/N2 are spaced perfectly evenly, while the rail line forces the stops to the right of it on the A/Ax bus line into a very tight area. While this could be justified because there is a bit of a gap between Plauen and Chrieschwitz in real life, that’s not really a consideration in a diagrammatic map like this.

On balance, however, this is definitely a massive improvement over the previous map, and it looks like changes between Moritz’s original version and the final one seen in the photo above were fairly minimal – the addition of icons to more clearly indicate the stops which are not accessible, darker/black linework for the night bus lines instead of the soft grey that Moritz used, and some minor labelling edits (setting “Capitol” on one line instead of hyphenating it over two, for example). All of which are probably changes I agree with, so everyone’s a winner!

Submission – Unofficial Map of Rail Transit in Montreal by zjfishy

June 14, 2018
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Submitted by zjfishy, who says:

After my frustration with the new Metro and AMT maps for Montreal, I decided to make my own including both. I took some of the key features from the Metro map (like the dark background and chunky lines), but put a more modern and cleaner twist on it.  Room for edits once the REM and Blue line extension open, as well as the possible Magenta line, were considered and made for (what I consider) an OK finished-product-ish map. It’s my first map of quality, and also the first I made with Affinity Designer after switching from Inkscape. The worst feeling is noticing an error after you rotated the lines 30 degrees, so you have to rotate them back again to use the grid properly!

Transit Maps says:

There’s a lot to like in this map: the angles are very visually pleasing, as is the differentiation between the chunky Metro lines and the thinner commuter rail lines (which are colour-coded by their downtown terminus, a nice usability touch). Heck, even the simplified geography looks great, which is no easy task in a map of Montreal!

And then there’s the station labels, which are way, way, way too small to be legible. At a minimum, I think they need to be as big as the small text in the legend. An oft-quoted rule of thumb (which originated with the London Underground Map’s style guide, I think) states that the x-height of your labelling typeface should be the same as the thickness of your route lines (in this case, that means the thickness of the Metro lines), and that’s probably a good place to start. Labels are arguably one of the most important elements of a good transit map, so it’s important to get them right. Here, I think they really undermine some otherwise excellent work, so a rethink would be good.

Unofficial Map: Metro do Porto Redesign by Eduardo Barros

June 14, 2018
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Submitted by Eduardo, who says:

This is my redesign of the Porto map for my University course. Your review of the real one helped me!

Transit Maps says:

This is a nice reworking of the official map, Eduardo – converting it from a stylised geographical map into a proper schematic diagram (the official map hasn’t changed too much since I reviewed it way back in 2012). I will quietly note that you’ve lifted the typography, logo and iconography directly from the official map, which is probably fine for a student project, but definitely something you have to be cautious with for real work.

Apart from that, the diagram looks quite lovely. It’s definitely more compact than the sprawling official map, which has the added benefit of making the type correspondingly larger, so that’s a good thing. The main failing of your work in my eyes is having stations placed exactly on a point where the lines change direction. This is something I always try to avoid, as it never looks right to me. On your diagram, it’s especially obvious at Via Rapida (where the station dots are at an odd 22.5-degree angle) and at Heroismo, where the station dots are on a sharp point. I’d look at respacing all the stations from Senhora da Hora all the way around to Estadio do Dragao more evenly, taking care that no stations are placed where a line changes direction. Look out for this in other places as well!

Similarly, I prefer not to have branching lines change direction directly under a station:they should always travel parallel to the other lines for a little way before branching off to make the transition a little easier to follow. It’s especially jarring where the light blue “A” line branches off at Denhora da Hora, as there’s a hard acute angle there, right under the station dot. I prefer to use curves where lines change direction for a softer, easier to follow route, although I do respect the stylistic decision for hard angles as well.

One further note: I’d move the zone boundaries to the bottom of the information hierarchy: they sit above both the route lines and the station names at the moment… things look a bit messy where they overlap labels at Campanha and Estadio do Dragao, for example.

Overall, this is a nice reimagining of the official map, though there’s still room for a bit of tweaking here and there to tighten the design up a bit more. I’d also love to see a version of this where you make the design more obviously “yours” rather than relying on the design language of the official map. 

Historical Map – Bus and Streetcar Lines on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, c. 1935

June 7, 2018
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An unusual perspective here – looking down the length of the mile-long diagonal parkway to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (and its famous steps), with bus and streetcar routes highlighted in a lovely shade of apple green. Does a lot of work with just two printed colours – a reminder that limited palettes can sometimes be just as effective as full-colour. Really quite lovely.

Prints of this map are now available in the Transit Maps store.

Source: Free Library of Philadelphia

Submission – Official Map: Transmilenio BRT, Bogota, Colombia

May 31, 2018
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Submitted by okamijishi, who says:

This is the official network map of Bogota’s Transmilenio, I wanted to know what do you think about it. I think this one is useless, we don’t use it a lot because it doesn’t show the routes.

Transit Maps says:

This is an interesting one. While the map is executed quite nicely with bold lines and clear labels, it is – as okamijishi says – almost entirely useless for actually navigating Bogota’s extensive BRT network. 

Leaving aside the fact that north is to the left, not the top, which is instantly disorienting, the main problem is that the map only shows zones (or corridors) within the system, with no indication of how routes interact with them. By my count, there are well over 100 different routes, which can travel over a combination of different zones on their journey. The C15, for example, uses four zones on its journey from Portal del Tunal in Zone H to Portal de Suba in Zone C… but it doesn’t stop at every station on the way, as it’s an express service. At least the letter in the route numbers seem to match the destination zone!

There are lots of tools on the SITP website to help riders find the right route – including a 13-page “cheat sheet” PDF of routes that riders can print out and put in their pocket for reference (no, seriously!) – but it all seems insanely complicated and arcane to me. And this map certainly isn’t going to help on its own. Looks great, not much help. 1 star despite the nice design sensibility.

Source: Official Transmilenio website

Submission – Redesign: Metro de Santiago, Chile, 2018 by Laura Sandoval

May 31, 2018
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Submitted by Laura, who says:

I have a love-hate relationship with Santiago’s Metro map. The current one excludes very useful information (particularly important for migrants and tourists) such as the existence of private buses to the Airport, or the commuter rail service to Nos (run by another company) that’s been working for more than a year now. It works just as well as the Metro using the same card and price, but for some reason is not mentioned.

This map was made from scratch by comparing distances between existing elements on it with the actual geography, not with the intent of being 100% geographically accurate, but to better show the relationship between the Metro and the Mapocho river (on the original one, for example, Plaza de Armas seems closer to the river than Baquedano, but in reality the opposite holds true). This map is currently being independently developed with the purpose of being distributed as a pocket map.

Transit Maps says:

I’ve actually had this map in my queue for quite a while – it came in during the Transit Maps World Cup, as Santiago’s official map was making its way to its eventual (and perhaps controversial) victory. Not wanting to post anything that could be seen as influencing the voting one way or another, I’ve held onto it until now. Hopefully you’ll agree that it was worth the wait, as Laura’s Vignelli-like diagram is really quite lovely.

The underlying street grid of the official map has been removed, with only the river remaining as a geographical landmark. All the lines have been straightened as much as possible, although some curious changes in direction still remain. Personally, I would have gotten rid of the changes in direction at the ends of the 2, 3, 6 and N lines… if feel that this has crossed the line from being a map to being a diagram, and should be treated as such – which means no changes in direction along a line unless absolutely necessary.

The comprehensive legend and list of stations is most welcome and well laid out, and the inclusion of icons denoting “Ruta Roja” and “Ruta Verde” stations – a peak hour skip-stop service pattern much like Chicago’s old A/B service – adds another layer of useful information.

Our rating: A clean and clear alternative to the official map. Three-and-a-half stars.

Submission – Unofficial Map: Metro and Tram Network of Marseille, France by Chris Smere

May 24, 2018
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Submitted by Chris, who says:

This is my version of the tramway and metro network of Marseille, France. It is one of my recent maps and I have tried to give it a 80s look but I am not sure I got it right. Overall, it’s not necessarily a map for daily use but more an interpretation of the system.

Transit Maps says:

For a relatively simple network like Marseille’s (with just two Metro lines and three tram lines), a diagram like this is perfectly workable for daily use, Chris. It’s simple, clear and still retains a good sense of how the lines fit together spatially… perhaps with the exception of the way that the M1 Metro dips inside the T2 tram line between Réformés/Canebière and Cinq Avenues. In the end, the way you’ve shown it allows your labelling to remain consistent and all the stations are still in the right place, so it’s really not that big an issue.

I really like the distinctive “X” interchange symbols on the map, though they’re deployed a bit inconsistently. Joliette and Belsunce Alcazar get one for each line, but nowhere else does. I’m not entirely convinced by the way that the tram lines are overlaid on top of the Metro lines at Noailles and Castellane, especially at the former where there’s little contrast between the red and orange colours. Personally, I’d prefer an “X-marker for each line” approach at all the interchange stations.

I’d also like the labels for all the intermediate stations to be a bit larger, and I’m not sure about the coloured text for terminus stops… the red on blue is pretty hard to read, and I’m not sure the combined yellow/green type at Arenc Le Silo really works. I’d also be interested in seeing what a darker blue background would look like… I think it could help the other colours pop out of the page a bit more and help you achieve that 80s look that you’re after. The typography is also something you could look at there… it’s executed quite nicely, but there’s nothing notably “80s” about it for me.

Overall, I really like this map. It’s visually striking and different, while still being very usable as a navigational tool. It’s certainly miles better than the stodgy official map (PDF link), that’s for sure!

Project: 1973 Vignelli D.C. Metro Concepts Digital Recreation

May 16, 2018
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Readers of Transit Maps will know that I recently featured some awesome concept artwork by Massimo Vignelli for the Washington DC Metro map that was created as part of an unsuccessful bid for the map’s contract in the early 1970s. (See the posts here and here). Interestingly, the Vignelli Archives – the source of the material – made a great deal about these being “new” discoveries, unearthed for the first time in nearly 40 years. However, I’d seen many of the concepts in Peter Lloyd’s excellent 2012 book, Vignelli Transit Maps – so they’d been pulled out of the archives at least once before now. Peter’s book also contains a further set of concepts using a hexagonal grid, but only as black and white photocopies. There were two variants: one showed an initial system of two lines (left), while the other showed a hypothetical full network, based mostly on a 1967 WMATA alternatives map. The copy of this map in the Vignelli Archives has its routes traced with coloured pencil – the colours used match those in the concept maps developed.

Once I saw this planning map (left), I suddenly realised that I could use it to interpret and redraw the “missing” hexagonal concepts featured in Peter’s book. The initial system was easy enough with just two lines and easy-to-read labels, but the full system concept was reproduced at too small a size to be able to read any station labels. I suspect that most of them were just repeated placeholder names anyway, as this was only ever a conceptual mock-up. So, using the names from the planning map and the route colours from the maps in the Vignelli Archives, I set to work recreating both maps in Adobe Illustrator.

The initial system map was quick and easy. I defined the hexagonal grid and constructed the whole thing mathematically (no eyeballing!) in around half an hour or so. The names are all as found on the original concept map, except that I corrected the inexplicable use of “Tacoma Park” instead of “Takoma Park”. Oddly, most cross street-named stations are expressed as being “at”, except for “Benning & Oklahoma N.E.”, which gets an ampersand for “and” instead.


The full system diagram took a little more time, though I’d done most of the hard work with the first map. Pleasingly, all the design rules carried across to the more complex map nicely, with only one station name – McPherson Square – being forced to cross a route line. Because this map was based on a planning map that shows alternatives for routes, there are some oddities in the network, not the least of which is the presence of four separate Gallows Road stations to the left of the map. Two alternate Green Line terminus stations, a standalone station on the purple commuter rail line out to Herndon and an interchange station between the commuter rail line and the Green Line. In reality, only one of these would have ever been selected and built. There’s also two Glenmont stations on the Red Line for much the same reason. I couldn’t find a name for the station immediately to the left of the Anacostia interchange on the Yellow Line, so I gave it the modern name of Congress Heights, as the other obvious choice of Alabama Avenue was already in use.

Curiously, the diagram omits the branch of the Blue Line down to Beacon Hill. Whether this is an oversight or just because the diagram was simply a proof of concept is unknown, but it would only take a simple reconfiguration of the Yellow Line branches to include it.

These concepts are an interesting example of a truly nodal topological diagram, with little indication of distance (or sometimes even direction), and were certainly fun to recreate. The major shortcoming is that they doesn’t seem to be able to handle multiple routes along the same track (see the double labelling of stations on the Purple and Green lines from Patrick Henry Drive to West Falls Church – these are actually shared stations, but the design doesn’t allow them to be shown in the same location). Of course, this means that this mapping style would be hard-pressed to depict the modern Metro network where the Blue, Orange and Silver Lines all run concurrently across much of the map.

As always, comments (and the inevitable corrections!) are most welcome!

While copyright precludes me selling prints of these exact maps, I have applied the design principles to the modern-day Metro network, and prints of that are available for purchase in the Transit Maps store.

Historical Maps: Vignelli Washington DC Concepts, 1973 – Part 2

May 11, 2018
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vignellicenter:

Yesterday we shared some newly uncovered Vignelli designs for the Washington DC Metro subway system. And you were so excited about that we couldn’t resist sharing a few more related items. 

Although Massimo Vignelli, while at Unimark International, designed the signage for the Washington DC Metro subway in 1968, he didn’t design the map (which was designed by Lance Wyman). But we recently uncovered a variety of ideas mocked up on these presentation boards. 

ICYMI, the Vignelli map presentation boards:
http://vignellicenter.tumblr.com/post/173781335542/found-in-the-archives-unrealized-dc-metro-map

We also found some original sketches for the signage! Stay tuned! 

And the standards manual for the DC Metro signage: 
http://vignellicenter.tumblr.com/post/168694505752/vignelli-dcmetro-manual

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority map design design process
Massimo and Lella Vignelli papers
Vignelli Center for Design Studies
Rochester, New York 

The Vignelli Center is the gift that just keeps on giving today. Wonderful stuff!

Historical Maps: Vignelli Washington DC Concepts, 1973 – Part 1

May 11, 2018
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vignellicenter:

Found in the archives! 

Unrealized DC Metro map designs. Although Massimo Vignelli, while at Unimark International, designed the signage for the Washington DC Metro subway in 1968, he didn’t design the map (which was designed by Lance Wyman). 

But we recently uncovered a variety of ideas mocked up on these presentation boards. We also found some original sketches for the signage! Stay tuned!

It’s well known that the signage and wayfinding system for the DC Metro was designed by Massimo Vignelli while at Unimark. It’s less well known that Vignelli Associates (the company Massimo founded after he left Unimark) put in a bid to also design the system map. 

The above are early exploratory concepts for the “Diagram of Lines”, as Vignelli preferred to call the map, probably dating to 1973. They range from sparse and minimalist to completely abstract, and definitely represent a very different approach to the thick, playful route lines of the eventual official map, designed by Lance Wyman.

Although Vignelli didn’t end up winning the contract for the map, he still had a huge effect on the way it looks today. Wyman originally planned to insert icons inside the circular disks that are used to denote stations on the map, but Vignelli argued that such an approach ran contrary to his (already approved) signage system. The WMATA board listened to Vignelli, and the icons were deleted from the map forever.