Amidst all the hoopla surrounding the opening of the new MAX light rail Orange Line, it’s easy to forget that Portland’s streetcar is now also running over the new Tilikum Crossing bridge. They’ve taken this opportunity to rework their system map to bring it more in line with their new branding – check out the rather nice new logo at the top left of the map, which doesn’t look half bad on the streetcars themselves.

I say “rework”, because a comparison with the previous map shows that the underlying basemap is almost identical, although it’s been given pastel neighbourhood colours on the new version. The typography has also been updated to use Halis Rounded, in-keeping with the new brand. It’s a nice, slightly softened sans serif that gives off a vague Neutraface or Verlag vibe without being quite as idiosyncratic as either of those better-known typefaces.

The really interesting thing about this map is the decision to split the newly completed Eastside loop into two separate route lines, the clockwise magenta “A Loop” and the counter-clockwise teal “B Loop”. I guess that this makes some sort of operational sense – and it would be nice for tourists to get that immediate sense that they’re on the right streetcar to go to OMSI, for example – but it works a little strangely in the section between PSU and South Waterfront. 

In this section, all three of the streetcar routes come together. But while the route lines for the A and B Loops each indicate travel in a single direction, the lime green route line for the NS Line – which is the same thickness – indicates bi-directional travel. What this means is that this part of the map no longer really works to give a quick visual idea of service frequency. If there were two route lines that were both indicative of bi-directional travel, and you knew that they individually ran at 20-minute intervals, you could then surmise that there was a 10-minute headway when the two route lines ran next to each other. Now, it’s a little trickier, as there’s three route lines of equal thickness, but one of them means something different to the other two. In the end, this only affects a small part of the map and perhaps this oddity is offset by the benefits of clarity that separating the two loop routes out offers. I’d be interested to hear others’ thoughts on this: good or bad?

Our rating: Visually, an improvement on the previous iteration regardless of the route designations. Three stars.