Submitted by Max’s proud dad, Charles, who says:

Sorry to be the doting parent, but I couldn’t resist submitting this map by my 5 y.o. son, Max, tangentially in connection with recent discussions of Philadelphia, as this is where we live and on which Arabi City is loosely based. But there are also stations from Jersey City, New York and the names of Max’s kindergarten classmates.

I think we can criticize his non-standard choice of font and the irregular pattern of the metro lines themselves. Also, Arabi City is behind in its program to make all its stations ADA-compliant – and this is given a cursory treatment in the map, as well. Still, I think this is a decent first off attempt from a young, creative mind. How many stars?

Transit Maps says:

Awesome work, Max! Keep this up and you’ll be a fine map-maker in the years to come. It’s a lot of fun to look at all the station names and wonder what your inspiration was. I see that Barnes & Noble has a station just for itself – that’s pretty neat. I wish my local bookstore had its own subway station, although the streetcar does go pretty close to Powells, a famous bookstore here in Portland.

You’ve done a good job with fitting the names of the stations onto the map, only using two directions for the type – across and up. Lots of real subway maps have text going all over the place and I think it looks really messy when people do it like that. You also have great handwriting for a five-year-old! My son is also five, and he likes to write his letters REALLY BIG. His name is Ryden: he thinks that maps are silly, and he would much rather go and build Lego instead.

I also really like your little wheelchair icon: it helps people who can’t use stairs work out where they can take the train to. Maybe the people of Arabi City can tell the mayor that they’d like more wheelchair-friendly stations that can help these people get around better?

I really like your map, Max, and I hope you think of even bigger, more exciting ones in the future! I give this 5 stars for creativity – keep up the great work!

All the best,

Cameron from Transit Maps