Submitted by Steve Boland, who says:
Cameron, as long as you’re talking about the new Salt Lake City map, I thought you should know that Denver has just adopted a new, updated but unfortunately only slightly amended version of their map, which of course was/is nearly as comically awful as Salt Lake’s old map. I wish it were possible to shame them into shape.
Transit Maps says:
Oh dear.
Denver’s map has never been as utterly bad as Salt Lake City’s previous efforts, but it’s also been curiously unwilling to change and adapt to the massive expansion that is has been undergoing in the last few years. A map style that was fairly compact and usable – if not that well drawn – when there were only five light rail lines heading south of the city (October 2011, 2 stars) has become incredibly unwieldy and spread out with the proliferation of new rail lines to all compass points under the FasTracks program. What once somewhat worked clearly no longer does.
The main problem with this map is the insistence on having perfectly circular fare zones with Union Station at the exact centre of the concentric rings. This creates some ridiculous levels of spatial distortion, especially on the new B and G lines to the north and northwest of Union Station. If concentric circles are a requirement, I’d suggest that a centre based on the radius of the loop around the western edge of the city would be a better starting point – it would certainly reduce the distance the B and G lines have to travel before reaching the edge of Zone 1!
I personally find the need to show the R Line’s quick little detour off I-225 to the Aurora Metro Center station completely unnecessary in a diagram like this, while downtown is a complete mess with the addition of the second MetroRide shuttle bus down 18th. Not only is the colour used for it very similar to the Green Line, but it also interferes with the directional arrows on the downtown light rail lines.
Our rating: A design that hasn’t moved with the times or the rapid expansion of Denver’s rail network, this map seems to be a slave to the decision to force the route lines (arguably the most important information) to conform to its concentric zone rings (secondary information) – not a great design choice. Getting worse, unfortunately. One-and-a-half stars.
Source: RTD website – link no longer active