Submitted by Brian, who says: A few years back I made a quick sketch for my friend showing the relationships between Pixies and Throwing Muses and their associated bands. For her recent birthday I made this subway map version for her, because, of course I did. Who doesn’t want a subway map for their birthday? Transit Maps says: Any resemblance to my mid-1990s CD collection is entirely coincidental, I assure you! I like this, Brian […]
The MTA released a beta version of a new online real-time subway map this morning, supposedly a fusion between the design sensibilities of the Vignelli diagram and the modern subway map’s geographical pragmatism. There’s certainly been a big PR push, with effusive articles being written about it and even a mini-documentary film by Gary Huswit of Helvetica fame. With all this hoopla, I had to go investigate myself… and I came away unimpressed. First things […]
A scanned slide showing a section of a wall-mounted Tokyo Metro map at a station (possibly Tokyo, judging by the dirty finger marks concentrated there). The lines of the Tokyo Metro are rendered in thick, bold colours that match pretty well with the current designations – yellow/gold for the Ginza Line, red for the Marunouchi Line, and grey/silver for the Hibiya Line. The competing Toei Subway’s Asakusa Line is not rendered in its modern pink/rose colour, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Submitted by Tom, who says: Australia’s two rival cities are currently separated by Covid-Curtain. Whilst commuters are also separated from their daily commute in the meantime, let’s explore an alternate universe timeline where the cities have swapped their network maps! Transit Maps says: What a fun little project! What I particularly like is just how far Tom has taken the “body swap”: the real Melbourne map shows V-Line services out into regional Victoria, so the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
