Chicago’s street grid is so incredibly regular that this map seems to be a rectilinear diagram. It’s only after observing some odd little twists and turns in the route lines that you realise that this is actually a fairly geographically accurate map – so much so that the downtown Loop is represented in an detail inset because it would otherwise appear too small to decipher. Even the station names pretty much conform to the grid […]
This map is a great example of how it’s attention to the little details that separate the great transit maps and the merely good. At first glance, this map has all the elements of the best: a clean layout, an excellent and consistently applied set of icons for subsidiary information (parking, restrooms, lost and found, etc. – although any information about disabled access to the system is strangely lacking), and good informational hierarchy (note how […]
Having showcased some excellent transit map design, it’s time to see what happens when it all goes horribly wrong. This monstrosity is the official map – available on the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority’s website – for the light rail system of Buffalo, New York. My eyes hurt. Have we been there? No. What we like: It tells us where the trains stop. That is all. What we don’t like: Where to begin? The hilarious usage […]
A transit diagram exhibiting many of the “standard” features of a German transit map: clean design, rectangles for interchange stations that increase in size according to the number of lines that pass through them, and an absence of curves on route lines. A few features set it apart from other similar maps, including the angled type used throughout, set in a slightly odd choice of Futura Condensed – not always the most legible typeface at […]
Here’s a transit map that can’t seem to make up its mind whether it is a rectilinear diagram or a geographically accurate map, and it ends up paying a price for that indecision. Overlaying the routes on a city-wide street grid can work well (see the Barcelona map posted previously), but here it seems to force the routes to be subservient to their geography, rather than the other way around. The labelling of the roads […]
An attractive and easy to follow map with a few unusual features. At first glance, it appears to be a diagrammatic map in the form of the London Underground Diagram, but it’s actually overlaid on a simplified, but accurate street grid, allowing easy reference to the features of the city. Especially prominent is the Avenue Diagonal – a major feature of the city emphasized by excellent design. It also cleverly rotates the map to fit […]
Recently, I entered a friendly contest organised by the Greater Greater Washington website to redesign the Washington, DC Metrorail map. With the recent appointment of the original designer, Lance Wyman, to renew the real map, there’s a lot of interest in this subject at the moment. I had already done a lot of the hard work with my previous redesign, although a few of the contest’s new requirements definitely necessitated a lot of rethinking. Overall, […]
