Submitted by Greater Auckland, who says:
I’d like to submit our new future Auckland regional transit map for a good brutally honest frisking! We follow your blog and you’ll see more than a few design cues have been picked up from your work.
This was done by Greater Auckland (formerly TransportBlog) to promote the revised Congestion Free Network Plan.
This network plan takes the best parts of the official Auckland multi-decade plan – the rapid transit of course! – and shows the system Auckland could have within 10 or 15 years… if the most of the public transport project funding was brought forward and the motorways and highways pushed back. About 30% of this is already existing, 60% planned by the city (eventually), and 10% invented by Greater Auckland.
The map is based on the ‘official’ planning map from the government (see page 23 of this document (PDF) but has been thoroughly improved to make it look like a real life map on a metro station wall.
It is designed as a A2 poster so some of the detail is quite small. In our recent fundraising drive we sold over a hundred copies at $100 a piece, so if you have any major comments let us know asap before we go to print!
The launch post with links is here. The map PDF can be found here, and the report that goes with it here.
Transit Maps says:
First off, the report that supports this map is rather wonderful, and a great read for those who are interested in such things. Auckland’s transit is already undergoing quite a transformation, and documents like this help continue that conversation into the future.
The map itself is quite lovely, I must say. The diagrammatic lines have been integrated with the geographical coastline quite expertly, although this does necessarily mean that the central portion of the map is a little cramped in comparison with the outer reaches. It’s only really a problem on the section of the green Western line between Baldwin Avenue and Mount Eden, which really does feel like things have been jammed in where they fit.
In general, I’m not the biggest advocate of colour-matching station labels with their respective lines: I always think it makes the map look more disjointed, and makes some lines look visually stronger than others just by virtue of having the darkest colour. It’s almost always the biggest problem with routes that are yellow, as the labels are much lighter than all the others. In a map like this, I’d prefer all the similar labels to be one colour. The attractive dark blue/grey used for interchange stations would work nicely for the rail/BRT stations, while an ever-so-slightly darker blue would make the ferry labels a little more visible against the background. At the moment, the labels are a little too tonally similar to the blue water fill for my liking.
After that, I’d just take a look at some of the label placement. Some are a little close to the route lines: Balmoral sits higher than Epsom, for example, and Orakei clips its route line as it goes around the curve. Shift it a tiny bit to the right and this won’t happen… that kind of little fix makes all the difference in the end.
Our rating: Overall, this is great work – clean, modern and inviting – that provides an inspiring look at the future of rapid transit in Auckland. Three stars!