Submitted by Sam, who says:
After a year and a bit of following this blog I’ve finally decided to make my own map!
As you may know, the city of Christchurch, NZ is currently going through a massive rebuilding effort following the quakes of 2010 and 2011. There are constant conversations around what to do with the future of the city’s transport network, with talks of trains appearing here and there in media (and most recently as election promises). Soon, the crown agency Regenerate Christchurch will release a shortlist of proposals for the ‘red zoned’ land in east Christchurch, and this will likely include some form of mass transit.
Inspired by all this chatter I made a map of what I think could be the future of Christchurch’s rapid transit! I tried to make it in a 45 / 90 grid but eventually went with a 30 / 60 / 90 just because I wanted to show more detail of the bus routes. The CBD has been enlarged, but still maintains the ‘four avenues’ that surround it to make the differing scale obvious.
Transit Maps says:
Congratulations on your first map, Sam – it’s a great start and I really like quite a few things about it. First off, I think I definitely notice the influence of Jug Cerovic’s work on this… and that’s never a bad starting point. Your station markers that match the width of the lines passing through are pretty neat as well, and everything is neatly drawn. The use of 30/60-degree angles is effective and creates some nice shapes, though you could perhaps look at finding ways of making things more stylised. For example, the “W” shape the orbital line makes at the bottom is so close to being symmetrical, and the fact that it isn’t keeps catching my eye and drawing it to that area.
However, your type is way too small and absolutely has to be larger to be legible. A general starting point is giving your letters an x-height (that is, the height of the lower-case letter “x”) that’s equal to the thickness of your route lines, so I’d start there and adjust as necessary. There’s plenty of wide open space, so enlarging the type shouldn’t be too difficult. I think you’ll find this one change will make a huge difference to the effectiveness of the map. Try printing your map out as big as you can and sticking it to a wall. Walk back a few feet and see if you can read it. If you can’t, make the type bigger!
Speaking of wide open spaces, I have to say that I think that your initial sketch map (as shown above) actually uses space more effectively. It’s more pleasingly compact in shape and yet retains the same level of information. And, even in this rough drawing, the larger hand-lettered labels show you how effective they can be.
I’d also suggest labelling major roads that the bus routes travel along to help orient users. Otherwise, the twists and turns they make just look a little random and you may as well straighten them out to make the shapes simpler.
Our rating: A great start that just needs a bit of refinement to make it sing. Bigger type is a must!