It seems I’m having a London Underground kind of week… When people ask me what my favourite version of the London Tube Map is, I always show them this. By 1961, Harry Beck was no longer responsible for producing the Tube map, it having been forcibly passed on to Harold Hutchison. However, more out of hope than anything else, he continued to produce new mockups of the map which he passed on to London Transport […]
Requested by: My dad (whose love of transit maps I have inherited) The London Tube Map is so synonymous with the name Harry Beck that I feel sure many people think he’s still holed up in a studio somewhere working on the maps even now (he died in 1974). In actuality, Beck’s last published Tube map was released in 1959: in 1960 it was replaced by this new version, ostensibly made by London Transport’s own […]
Almost everyone credits Harry Beck with “inventing” the diagrammatic transit map in 1933 with his iconic London Underground map. But the diagram form had already been in use for a number of years before that, as shown in this delightful 1929 diagram for LNER suburban services out of London’s Kings Cross station to points north. It was designed by George Dow, who created many such diagrams for the LNER. His son, Andrew Dow, wrote a […]
One last view of Philadelphia transit via these amazing diagrams from a 1972 book by Richard Saul Wurman from the MIT Press, “Man-Made Philadelphia”, now sadly out of print. As well as the train network, there’s also buses, highways and the growth of the city. Definitely loving the early 70s mimimalism design vibe to these. Looks like they were all produced specially for the book. Source: rjwhite/Flickr
A reblog by cranialdetritus of yesterday’s featured SEPTA map asked whether I had covered the SEPTA maps of the 1970s yet. I hadn’t, and tracking down an image proved a little tricky. The best I can find is a modern redrawing of the map from around 1979-1980 – credit to Lucius Kwok of Felt Tip Software for this work. It seems to be a quite accurate rendition, as the photo below – showing part of […]
The main arguments against Massimo Vignelli’s masterful 1972 diagrammatic map of the New York Subway are that New York never had a diagram before and hated it, and that it distorted the geography too much (the usual example given is the compression of Central Park into a square instead of its actual rectangle). However, this map – the immediate predecessor to the Vignelli map and used in various forms from around 1958 to 1972 – […]
Another aerial-style view of a transit system – this time of Boston’s MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority: now known as the “T”) subway system. The attention to detail is wonderful, with each station and tunnel lovingly and accurately rendered. Note how the routes have different colours to the current map: the current colours come from a system-wide rebranding in the 1960s. Have we been there? Yes, and I used the “T” extensively while there. What we […]
A fascinating snapshot in time of the full extent of the great Pacific Electric Railway Company’s operations in Los Angeles and southern California. The famous “Red Cars”, a combination of streetcars and interurban light rail spanned vast distances at a time before the car had truly entered the American way of life. Within 30 years, most of this system – the “largest electric railway system in the world” – had been replaced by motorcoach services […]
Without a doubt, this has to be one of my favourite transit maps ever. As far as I know, this isometric approach is unique and it is staggeringly effective. Everything is beautifully labelled, and lovely icons highlight important sites like the zoo, museums and sports stadiums. Unfortunately, this stunning map has since been replaced by a far more conventional diagram – a great loss in my opinion. Have we been there? I’ve changed trains at […]
Love this, such attention to detail. Every aspect has been carefully considered and it shows. Especially love the outlined version of the LU roundel to counterbalance the heavy METROPOLITAN LINE reversed text next to it. Can anyone date this for me? Source: garethr1/Flickr
