Month: August 2012

Historical Map: Paris Metro Map, 1956

August 7, 2012
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Transit maps today are created on computer, and printed with advanced technology. We think nothing of using many different colours, adding a drop shadow behind type, adding a gradient to the background, transparency effects – all things that state-of-the-art design software makes perhaps a little too easy. As a contrast to these glitzy new-fangled maps, I present an antidote: a simply stunning, beautiful and ever-so-French map of the Paris Metro from 1956. It’s printed with […]

Official Map: New Miami Metrorail Station Map, 2012

August 6, 2012
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Here’s a seriously curious photo, brought to my attention by reader Ryan Vansickle. It shows the new signage that has been put in place for the opening of the new Orange Line in Miami that we just featured. Apparently, this sign has been at the Douglas Road station since February, which is impressive pre-planning! However, the curious thing is that it doesn’t match the actual system map in any way whatsoever. True, this is a […]

Official Map: Dallas DART Light Rail System, 2012

August 6, 2012
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Hot on the heels of Miami’s new Orange Line comes another one: this one belonging to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) system. This new line will eventually bring light rail to DFW airport, an essential transportation link in any large city, I feel. Have we been there? No. What we like: Relatively clean and simple compared to many American transit maps. The street grid is visible, but subsidiary to the main information. The downtown […]

Official Map: Miami-Dade Metrorail System, Florida, 2012

August 4, 2012
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Miami’s Metrorail just opened a new station at Miami International Airport, and decided to create an entirely new line (the Orange Line) to celebrate. Along with that, comes a new system map… which is, unfortunately, pretty terrible. Have we been there? No. What we like: The icon for overnight/long-term parking lots is actually pretty neat. What we don’t like: Poorly chosen background colours make the road grid hard to distinguish from the background. On that […]

Historical Map: PATH Map, New York and New Jersey, 1979

August 3, 2012
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After all the diagrammatic maps we’ve featured so far, it’s nice to showcase something completely different – check out this awesome painted birds-eye view of PATH services between New Jersey and Manhattan from 1979. It also shows other rail services in New Jersey snaking off into the far distance, and even Lady Liberty standing guard over New York and the cutest little Staten Island ferry you ever did see. Have we been there? Yes, but […]

Official Map: Prague Integrated Transport, 2012

August 3, 2012
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Here’s the last entry in our short series on current transit maps in Prague, an integrated map. In my opinion, this map hits the sweet spot as far as information and presentation are concerned: it shows Metro and tram service better than the simple Metro Orientation map, but without the mind-numbing level of detail of the full service map. What we like: Retains the cute major landmark icons from the simpler map. The addition of […]

Fantasy Map: National Parks Transit Authority Map

August 2, 2012
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Produced for the Sierra Club and very nicely done indeed. Having Yosemite and Yellowstone as the main “hubs” seems very appropriate. Sadly, I’ve only been to three of these parks – Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Crater Lake – something I’ll have to remedy. Finally, I love the disclaimer: *So incredibly not to scale and also fictional. Source: @BRFoo/Twitter

Official Map: Full Service Metro and Tram Map, Prague, 2012

August 2, 2012
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The second map in our short series of current transit maps in Prague. Whereas yesterday’s map was perhaps a little light in information, this one goes in completely the other direction and shows absolutely everything. I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, but this is definitely a map for detailed analysis of transit in Prague, rather than a quick reference guide. What we like: Comprehensive and detailed overview of rail transit in Prague. […]

Official Map: Prague Metro Orientation Map, 2012

August 1, 2012
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This is the first of three posts regarding current transit maps in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. All are part of a unified set of maps (all of which use the interesting framing device of stylised buildings and trams, which I can’t decide if I think is playfully irreverent or just plain stupid) and provide interesting lessons on how much information is “just right” for a transit map to be really useful. This […]