Submitted by Phil K, who says:

On my recent trip to Cleveland, I had a chance to check out their new rapid transit system map, and was pleasantly surprised. It’s not perfect, but it’s a pretty big upgrade from the previous version (reviewed July 2012, 1 star).

A few major changes to note:

• Awkward angles have been straightened and geography has been simplified even further in in favor of a more schematic approach; this is particularly noticeable on the waterfront Line and the eastern portion of the Red Line
• They’ve transitioned away from the awful multi-coloured line transfer nodes to a more uniform, black transfer node/lozenge
• Though I’m not a huge fan of diagonal station labels, the new labels are also a big upgrade from the previous, haphazardly-placed leder line and inconsistent spacing approach
• They’ve also removed the far-too-dominant “P” at the park and ride stations, opting instead for a clean icon placed consistently on the opposite side of the node from the station label

I’m not loving the increased size type for terminus stations, particularly for Tower City-Public Square, but I suppose they serve as a bit of an orienting feature. The terminus stations – and especially the Tower City hub – are very heavily referenced throughout the system on other wayfinding signage, so they are definitely strongly-embedded in riders’ mental maps.

I also don’t care for the bubble labels on the HealthLine and Cleveland State Line BRTs, as I think these could have easily been explained by the legend, but the labels aren’t egregious.

Overall, despite some flaws, I think this is a major step up from the previous version. It’s clean and communicates just enough information in its simplified format to be useful without being overly designed. 

Transit Maps says:

This is a pretty accurate summation from Phil – the map is much improved from the previous version, but still isn’t outstanding. I know that Tower City-Public Square is an important transportation hub and a defining part of Cleveland itself, but that label size is simply ridiculous. 

Some more consistency in the labelling of the stations could have been good: they’re horizontal on the Red Line down to the airport, but angled on the Waterfront section of the Blue/Green lines – seemingly to avoid clashing with the coastline, but that could easily be avoided with some reworking. I do give credit for the consistent and regular placement of the parking icons, though.

The inclusion of the two “rapid” bus routes is still pretty desultory: the Cleveland State Line doesn’t even join onto the main trunk properly, so I’m not sure of how it actually interfaces with the other lines. If it goes to Public Square, then that needs to be shown properly. 

Also, the legend for the map describes these two routes in possibly the most confusing way ever: “These routes operate on the roadway.” Wait, what? All the other routes are trains, so are these also trains, but running down the middle of the street? It’s all very weird, and it almost seems that the map is intentionally trying to not refer to these lines as bus routes. Mode stigma is alive and well in Cleveland, it seems.

Our rating: Definitely an improvement, but there’s still a way to go to be really good. Two-and-a-half stars.