Author: Cameron Booth

Reader Question: Preparing Print-Ready Raster Files from Adobe Illustrator

April 7, 2016
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Question: Hi Cameron, I’m wrapping up a transit map project that I’ll likely print professionally. I was all set to send the printer a PDF until I happened to catch one of your tweets that mentioned using a high-resolution JPEG instead. I’m wondering if you could share your recommended practices for exporting from Illustrator to print-ready JPEG in terms of resolution, color profiles, and the like. The last thing any of us wants is to […]

Submission  – Official Map: Transtejo Ferry Network of Lisbon, Portugal, 2016

April 5, 2016
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Submitted by Frederico, who says: Here’s the new diagram for Transtejo, the company that manages Lisbon’s main waterways lines. It is part of Transportes de Lisboa, the main company, along with Metro and Carris, the one that provides buses and trams. I can’t decide if I like it or not… It definitely inherited the simplism and amazing typeface from Lisbon’s Metro map, which I approve, but I feel like it could be better executed. There’s […]

Submission – Official Map: Regional Bus Map of Wismar, Germany, 2016

April 4, 2016
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Submitted by Simon, who says: I recently found this horrible official map of the regional buses in the North-German town of Wismar. I already planned to make them a proper map until I found out that this bus company doesn’t operate anymore since the end of 2015, so it probably doesn’t matter. Transit Maps says: Not operating anymore, huh? I wonder if having a map that made it virtually impossible to work out where any […]

Updated Unofficial Map: Singapore MRT & LRT Map by Andrew Smithers, 2016

April 4, 2016
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I’ve covered a previous version of this map before (November 2013, 4 stars), but I think this recent update is worth showing, because it’s always fun to see how a concept can evolve over time.  Like the most recent version of the official map and Bernie Ng (November 2013, 3.5 stars). Andrew has come to the conclusion that placing the alphanumeric station identifiers inside each station marker is the best way to go, and it […]

Erroneous Sydney Ferries Map from “Lonely Planet” Guidebook

April 1, 2016
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My dad just sent me this Sydney Ferries map as featured in the latest “Lonely Planet” Guide to that city. It’s obviously licensed from the official version (February 2015, 2.5 stars) with some minor edits like the removal of the background grid lines.  However, the map’s whole background has been accidentally shifted upwards, leaving all the routes seriously misplaced relative to the harbour. The Parramatta River line now appears to use Parramatta Road to reach its […]

Official Map: Bus Routes of Midland, Texas, 2016

March 28, 2016
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Brought to my attention by Twitter user Zmapper, here’s a first (and hopefully a last) for a public transit agency – an official map that’s been drawn in Microsoft Excel. Lest you think I’m joking, the downloadable PDF on the EzRider website is named “Copy of Midland Bus Routes sch 2.xlsx”. The visible cell gridlines behind the map are also a bit of dead giveaway. I understand that smaller agencies are strapped for time, money and […]

Submission – Historical Map: Proposed Baghdad Metro Map, c. 1981-1984

March 25, 2016
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Submitted by peopleneedaplacetogo, who says: The Wikipedia article for “Baghdad Metro” includes this unsourced image of a proposed network map. The way the colours are used in different directions is quite unusual but I guess makes sense if each colour corresponds to a destination (e.g. if destination signs on the front of trains are coloured). Transit Maps says: Hooray for reverse image search, which eventually revealed that this absolutely beautiful diagram was drawn by Richard […]

Fantasy Maps: Zootopia Transit Authority Maps

March 24, 2016
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I’ve had quite a few requests for a review of the first map above, which is concept art for the movie Zootopia by art director, Matthias Lechner. The map does appear briefly at one point of the movie as well. Leaving aside the logistical nightmare that would occur from having so many loop lines in a transit system, this is a fun little map. As one might expect from a Disney film, it comes across […]

Project: New York Subway Map in the Style of the London Tube Diagram

March 22, 2016
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Mash-Up Maps, My Transit Maps, Unofficial Maps
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A little while ago, someone asked me on my "Transit Maps" blog whether I had ever seen a map of the New York subway system in the style of the London Underground diagram. Rather surprisingly, I hadn't actually come across one, so - surprise! - I decided to draw one up myself.

Photo: Maps in Repurposed Transit Shelter, Portland, Oregon

March 16, 2016
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This small cafe on Fifth Avenue in Portland is housed in one of the last remaining bus shelters from the pre-2007 transit mall, and (awesomely) still retains the maps and informational signage of that vintage.  To the left is the transit mall directory, featuring the last iteration of Portland’s icon-based route grouping – a beaver for routes to the southeast, a leaf for southern routes, a rose for southwest routes, and a deer for those […]