Historical Map: Eastern Michigan Bus System Map, August 1935

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Submitted by xoverit, who says:

I found this interesting thing inside of the 5 August 1935 Michigan Official Motor Bus Guide. It’s not a particularly good or notable map, but the logo of the Eastern Michigan System was obviously inspired by the London Underground!

Transit Maps says:

I’d say you’re almost certainly right… the “bullseye” (as it was called in those days, though it’s now commonly referred to as the “roundel”) was seized upon by transit agencies worldwide as a de facto symbol of rapid, frequent and excellent service and was copied almost exactly from Michigan to Sydney and everywhere else in between. Of course, London Transport and its successor, TfL, eventually asserted their copyright over the symbol and use elsewhere virtually disappeared.

As xoverit says, the map itself is pretty unremarkable except as an historical record: it’s crudely drawn and the printed reproduction is pretty poor as well. One little detail does make me laugh, though – the town of “Chelsea” lies to the west of Ann Arbor, with the town of “Clinton” to the southwest: but their labels are so close together that there appears to be a single town called “Chelsea Clinton” upon first viewing of the map.

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