Author: Cameron Booth

Official Map: Streetcar Network, New Orleans, 2013

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Official Maps

Brought to my attention by Transit Maps follower, Alex Marshall, this is the latest New Orleans streetcar map, updated after the opening of the new Loyola Avenue line in January of this year.  Have we been there? No. One day! What we like: Informationally, it does the job, I guess. It shows the routes and connections to other services in a neat, easily understandable way. It’s just so… dull. What we don’t like: The very best transit […]

Submission – Fantasy Map: United States High Speed Rail System by Albert Twu

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Fantasy Maps

Submitted by thethingtobomb, who says: Obviously this potential US High Speed rail system has some layout problems, but the map itself is intriguing. What’s your opinion? Transit Maps says: The problem with this map is that it’s based on incredibly optimistic projections of HSR in the United States (I believe the technical term for this is a “pipe dream”). Back in 2009, there was a big push for high-speed rail and it seemed that everyone was […]

Hand Drawn-Map of Japanese Rail System by Wyton Chu

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Unofficial Maps

Okay, this is nothing short of amazing. Drawing a complex transit system map is hard enough, even with computers and the precise drawing/drafting tools they offer. To draw something like this by hand and have it look so clean and accurate beggars belief. Love love love. Click through to view a whole set of images of this remarkable piece on Flickr. Source: Flickr/chuwasg

More Tariff Zone Maps: The Ugly Stepsisters of the Transit Map World

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Official Maps

Yesterday’s post on Eastern Austria/Greater Vienna’s tariff zone map certainly attracted some attention: I’ve already received quite a few links to similar maps from different (mainly European) locations. Shown here are the tariff zone maps for Munich, Glasgow and Hamburg, all of which are bewildering in their own way. As some commenters have pointed out to me, these maps seem to be a bit of a necessary evil: the transit agency needs to have some […]

Official Map: Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region Tarifzonenplan, Austria, 2013

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Official Maps

Okay, my head is officially reeling here. Try as I might, I can barely make any sense at all of this fare zone map from Austria’s Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region, the transport association that handles rail and bus transit in Eastern Austria (in effect, the Greater Vienna area). I get that there are eight concentric zone rings radiating out from Vienna, each of which is broken up into smaller zone areas, but after that… There just seems […]

The Design Process Behind the New Moscow Metro Map

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Official Maps

 As you may have heard by now, the Art Lebedev Studio entry will become the new official Moscow Metro map at the end of February. It beat out the other two entries convincingly, garnering 52% of the popular vote. Of particular interest to me, though, is the design process page for the map on their website: a fascinating look at the hard work and effort that goes into making a world-class transit map. Concepts are […]

Unofficial Map: San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit, 2011

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Unofficial Maps

This post comes about because of an email from an anonymous follower, who says: “Any idea if a unified San Francisco transit map exists somewhere out there, perhaps a la the Portland one? SF has to have one of the more confusing transit systems in the country, what with Caltrain + BART + Muni + cable cars + the F line.” As it happens, there are plenty of unofficial maps showing both just the City […]

Historical Map: Los Angeles Pacific Electric Network, 1925

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Historical Maps, Prints Available

A beautifully rendered (just look at those lovingly drawn mountain ranges!) old-school map of the famous “Red Car” network at its absolute zenith. It was pretty much all downhill after this: real estate sales from land that had been opened up by the network (the real money that allowed the rail service to continue to run despite operating losses) began to decline and many rural services were converted to cheaper buses around this date. In the […]

Video: Making of a London Underground String Map by Dan Coffey

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Unofficial Maps

Feeling creative? Why not make a string art replica of your favourite subway system as shown in this awesome video? The pro tip is definitely the taping down of the actual map before putting in the nails for guaranteed fidelity to the real thing. Source: Dan Coffey/Vimeo