Submitted by Fabian Wegewijs, the Coordinator of Travel Information for U-OV, who says:
U-OV is the operator of public transport in Utrecht, the fourth largest city in the Netherlands. We operate a fleet of more than 300 buses and 26 trams, mostly on two radial networks. The main network goes to and from the main railway station, Utrecht Central. The second radial network goes to and from De Uithof University area. Our detailed network map for planning purposes was submitted to your website by Jug Cerovic a while ago (July 2016, 4 stars). For this map we’ve received numerous positive reactions from our customers.
Additionally we have developed a totally schematic map for promotion purposes. With this map we want to show commuters how easy it is to reach the University area with direct services from nearby residential areas and regional railway stations, so they can avoid the overcrowded bus services from Utrecht Central station. We also use this as promotional material to convince motorists to make use of public transportation.
We are eager to learn what you think of this map, as we are constantly looking for ways to improve our customer service experience. Your suggestions are highly appreciated and we hope to implement them in the next version of the map in December of this year.
Transit Maps says:
Ugggh, my submission queue is out of control, and this piece has unfortunately sat in it for way too long. It’s fantastic to get work directly from actual transit agencies, and hopefully there will be more in the future!
As for this piece, I think it largely succeeds in its goal of emphasising connections to the University while remaining simple, accessible and a little fun.
Interestingly, the diagram downgrades the high-frequency #12 and #28 buses (based off my reading of Jug’s full system map) through Utrecht Central to thin route lines. While this is in line with the stated mission of getting riders to find alternative routes to the University, it does muddle the message of the map a little. Preferred routes are shown on the diagram as thicker lines, with their frequencies shown in call-boxes. By inference, I think many readers would then assume that thinner lines equal a lower frequency service… which isn’t necessarily the case. For example, a rider coming from Vleuten Station might think that there’s only one #28 every hour, as the #29 has a thicker route line with just two buses per hour (which isn’t even particularly “frequent”).
Finally, a statement that the four buses an hour from Driebergen-Zeist is for the #71 combined with the limited-service #271 and #371 could be good, just to head off any potential confusion that there’s somehow 12 buses an hour along this section (four for each of the three services).
Overall, I do like this little diagram – it has a fun quirkiness to it that I really enjoy – and it’s great to see transit agencies trying new and interesting ways of informing people of their services. I do think that the thick versus thin route lines need a better explanation to prevent confusion over implied frequencies, but it’s not a deal-breaker for me, either.