Author: Cameron Booth

Submission – Official Map: TranGo Route Map, Okanogan, Washington

October 6, 2020
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Submitted by Aaron, who says: Worst map? High quality map I found while researching random rural transportation systems in the middle of nowhere across the country. I have to say, their website design is not much better either. Transit Maps says: It’s all so easy to look at this very basic map and say that it’s terrible, but we do need to be mindful that these small regional transit services operate on shoestring budgets with […]

Project: Denver Rail Network 2044 Spiral Map

October 4, 2020
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Future Maps, My Transit Maps, Unofficial Maps
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I originally posted this map on Twitter, but I’m also putting it on the blog for posterity, as well as to fully detail the design decisions that went into it. I’ve long thought that there’s been a design opportunity with Denver rail maps for a large circular arc for the light rail stations running south around the edge of the downtown area out of Union Station. I’ve doodled with ideas over the years, but I’ve […]

Submission – Unofficial Maps: Sydney and Melbourne “Body Swap” Maps by Thomas Soo

September 21, 2020
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Mash-Up Maps, Unofficial Maps
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Submitted by Thomas, who says: I felt like Melbourne was so far away because of the Covid-Curtain and desperately wanted to do anything but study for uni this weekend so I made this! It’s amazing how different the approaches to passenger commute information, up-front legibility and overall design cues differ between the rival cities. Transit Maps says: What a fun little project! What I particularly like is just how far Thomas has taken the “body […]

Historical Map: Proposed Personal Rapid Transit Demonstration Site, Denver, 1972

September 18, 2020
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Long before the current idea of putting Teslas in tunnels and calling it rapid transit, there was PRT, or Personal Rapid Transit. The idea was that many small carriages on guideways could take people directly to their intended destination anywhere along the route – described as a “horizontal elevator” by John Volpe, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation at the time. In the early 1970s, Denver beat out 29 other cities around the U.S. and was […]

Submission – Official Map: Île-de-France Compact Network Map, 2020

September 14, 2020
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Submitted by Hélio, who says: I saw your already covered the Paris regional public transport map before, and I was wondering whether you had seen the very cute compact version you can see on the Vianavigo site when you zoom out. What do you think? Transit Maps says: Tiny and adorable, this diagram really only exists to say, “Hey, you’ve zoomed out too far!” Impressively though, it retains the same structure as the more detailed […]

Historical Map: West Yorkshire ElectroBus Informational Leaflet, 1985

September 9, 2020
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On from the “what could have been?” files – a proposed double-decker trolleybus service covering 76 kilometres (just under 50 miles) of routes in West Yorkshire. Between 1980 and 1990, the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive repeatedly attempted to gain government funding for this project: this leaflet looks like one of those efforts, extolling the benefits of such a network. Eventually, a private bus operator announced a plan to operate a diesel bus service along […]

Submission – Unofficial Map: Tel Aviv Metro 2040 by Alan Tanaman

September 8, 2020
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Future Maps, Unofficial Maps
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Submitted by Alan, who says: Still love reading your blog after all these years. The NTA has just released a new map for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area mass transit system. There are currently three light rail lines under construction (red, green, and purple), partly running underground, and due to be completed by 2026. A metro is planned for launch around 2040. I felt that while the official map is not bad, it does not […]

Historical Map: Market-Frankford Line Map, Philadelphia, June 1968

September 7, 2020
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A great photograph of what looks like a wall-mounted map showing subway service in Philadelphia dated June 1968, with particular emphasis on the Market-Frankford Line. The map is interesting for quite a few reasons, not the least of which is that it would be one of the last maps of the Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) era, as the PTC would be acquired by its successor, SEPTA, in September 1968, just a few months later. The […]

Submission – Melbourne Suburban Rail in the Style of Vignelli by Philip Mallis

August 21, 2020
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Originally submitted by Philip himself, with further submissions reminding me of it recently. Of the map, Philip says: This is my interpretation of what Melbourne’s rail network could look like in the style of the 1972 Vignelli New York Subway map. I have depicted the current Melbourne metropolitan passenger rail network as it stands in 2020, plus one tram route. Given this is a map of Melbourne with the largest tram network in the world, […]

Historical Map: Boston and Maine Railroad and Connections, 1915

August 20, 2020
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I’m loving this totally bonkers diagram of lines owned, leased or controlled by the Boston & Maine RR in 1915. An increasingly complex system of line colours combined with dashes, dots and zig-zags attempts to record all the various agreements in place for line leases and trackage rights. The B&M itself is the yellow lines to the right of the map – all the other coloured lines are lines that they have some level of […]