Submitted by Kevin McElroy, who says: The Rome Metro has only had 2 lines for quite sometime. For such a famous European capital the metro system is pretty simple. Metro C is a new line opened in the southeastern portion of the city and extends out into the periphery. It is planned to eventually cross the historic center, though for now isn’t all funded. They updated the Metro map with lines, A, B, B1 (a […]
Here’s a fantastic bit of Washington Metro history that I hadn’t seen before: an original working drawing of the now-iconic map from 1974, two years before the system opened (see the opening day map here). Interestingly, it looks like Wyman was experimenting with textural treatments for the route lines at this time – stripes for the Red Line, stars for the Blue, etc. – an idea I’m ever so glad he abandoned, because it would […]
Submitted by Simon, who says: Hey there! I read your blog for a while now and, being sort of interested in graphical line maps, I made my first own one. I recently moved to Oslo and I saw you already had the official one on here, and a reinterpretation. The corporate identity of Ruter, the transit authority here is already pretty nifty; the metro map sort of falls short a little on that behalf (in […]
Question: What are the most common “line colors” for transit lines? I’ve heard of blue lines, red lines, yellow/green/silver/purple/orange/pink lines, but is there anything I’m missing? Once a transit system gets over that amount of colors, do they usually switch to Line 1/A Train/etc.? Answer: To answer your question, I’m going to point you towards Nick Rougeux’s excellent “Global Subway Spectrum” web page, which breaks down the route colours used by rapid transit systems around the world […]
I made some Transit Maps business cards! Printed by Moo, they feature one common front with all my contact details, and 25 different backs with artwork from all the many and varied maps that I’ve created over the years. They look absolutely gorgeous, and the satin finish card stock is superb: no flimsy “almost paper” card here! (Now to remember to carry them with me.)
Submitted by Steve Collins. This lovely hand-painted Tube map is just a small part of an impressive installation at the designjunction exhibition in London. Artist Camilla Barnard, in conjunction with TfL, has built an entire Tube Station replica out of wood, including ticket machines and barriers, a newspaper stand and both eastbound and westbound stations. Fun! Source: Creative Review – link no longer active.
Taking transit map wall art to the next level is this piece by Ian Reynolds, an electrical engineer and computer science student at MIT. Not only does it light up and look cool, but it actually queries the MBTA API to show the real-time position of trains on the system. Very awesome. As Ian himself describes it over on Reddit, “The MBTA is a big part of life in Boston, and I built this as sort […]
Spotted by Theo Ditsek, here’s a lovely circular representation of the planned “Grand Paris Express” Line 15, which will eventually circumnavigate greater Paris. I believe the first phase (shown above as the bolder arc of the circle) is meant to be operational by 2022, although it’s reportedly already two years behind schedule. The map itself was part of an exhibition about the project that was held in Vitry-sur-Seine, seen at the bottom right of the map. […]
Submitted by ruddlesrocket, who says: What do you think of this? I think it’s probably the worst map that TfL produce, having neither the benefits of geographically accurate maps (it’s difficult to know what streets the buses run along), and diagrammatic maps, in that it’s almost impossible to trace the route taken by one bus. Transit Maps says: I totally agree with this assessment! I’ll never understand why some night service maps completely eschew the principles […]
Submitted by long time contributor, Kara Fischer, who asks: Clever idea? Or useless eye-candy? Transit Maps says: Definitely just eye-candy, and really only made because of the terrible ‘El’ements pun in the title. It’s certainly not useful in any meaningful way and doesn’t bear anything but a superficial resemblance to the actual periodic table of elements. Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table, by the way, is one of the most information-dense infographics ever, with both the rows and columns […]
