Month: December 2013

Tutorial: Station Labels Using the “Core Type Area” – Part 4: Intersecting Route Lines

December 10, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Tutorials
Tags:

Here’s the last of my tutorials regarding station label placement – what to do when route lines intersect each other. There are three standard ways that orthogonal route lines can cross each other, each illustrated below. Horizontal and Vertical Lines: The simplest intersection to deal with. Simply keep the same distance from the side and top/bottom of your label for consistent results. Vertical Line Intersecting an Angled Line (or a Horizontal Line/Angled Line): This one’s […]

Official Map: New York/New Jersey Regional Transit Diagram for 2014

December 9, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

Hot off the presses via New Jersey Transit’s Twitter account, here’s a first look at a new regional transit map that (finally!) combines New Jersey Transit rail, PATH rail and the New York Subway onto one map to “facilitate ease of travel between all three systems”. It appears to be heavily based off the Massimo Vignelli “Weekender” diagram, although I don’t know if Vignelli himself (or his studio) was actually involved in the design of […]

Reader Question – What’s the Best Way to Hang a Map on a Wall?

December 9, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Questions
Tags:

Here’s a question from Didier that’s a little outside the normal boundaries of this blog, but I think I’ve got a couple of ideas on the subject… Hi Cam, What is the best way to hang a map on a wall? I don’t really want to frame it, but I don’t think pins would be/look great. How do you hang maps on your walls? Thanks and your work is amazing. Transit Maps says: Thanks for […]

Submission – Unofficial/Future Map: Long Island Rail Road by Anthony Denaro

December 9, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Future Maps, Unofficial Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Anthony, who says: Here’s my map of Off-Peak (weekdays, and nights) and Weekends Long Island Rail Road Service.   This map shows service diagrammatically, de-emphasizing geography for clarity of branch services and transfers, introduces a grouping color coding system for branches, and improves legibility of the system. The LIRR current map lacks both routing and geographic info – there’s no sense of connecting roads and services and no sense of which branch’s trains stop at which station – failing at […]

Historical Map: Tyne and Wear Metro, 1981

December 6, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

A beautiful early map for this system, clearly showing how much of it was planned from the start. Apart from a few name changes (the proposed “Old Fold” station became Gateshead Stadium, for example), this is recognisably the same map that existed as far into the future as the year 2000, when the proposed extension to Sunderland made its appearance. The outlined route lines to show proposed/future extensions work wonderfully well, making an excellent contrast […]

Unofficial Map: Hand-Drawn Danish InterCity Train Network

December 5, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Halid Karpović, who says: It’s Halid again, who’s already submitted you the transit diagram of Sarajevo. This time, I’ve got something I’ve made myself. When I was on vacation in Denmark a while ago, I got a leaflet with timetables of the Danish InterCity lines, operated by DSB. Then, I took a pencil and four sheets of paper and drew a transit diagram with its help. Et voilà, this is the result! I’d be […]

Tutorial: Station Labels Using the “Core Type Area” – Part 3: Angled Labels

December 3, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Tutorials
Tags:

While it’s true that I don’t really like the use of station labels that are angled – being very much in the Erik Spiekermann camp that believes horizontal labels aid comprehension and create a cleaner looking map – I do realise that there are times when their use is necessary. If you do use angled labels, then I strongly advise that you keep the number of angles used to the absolute minimum required – type […]

Unofficial Map: Suburban Rail Network of Mumbai, India

December 2, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps
Tags:

Designed by two students – Jaikishan and Snehal – at Mumbai’s Industrial Design Centre under the supervision of Associate Professor Mandar Rane. While it looks like quite a traditional transit map, there’s a few innovations and design choices (of which some work, and some don’t) that make it interesting to study. First off, this map is infinitely better than the official one, which is a bit of a mess however you look at it. Normally, I’m not a huge […]