Submitted by Chris Bastian, who says:
Houston light rail map (2016); one core line (red); two spurs (green/purple) with planned extensions shown.
Transit Maps says:
I can understand that METRO is proud of their two new lines, but at this point they’ve been open for almost a year and a half. I think we can lose the awkward “NOW OPEN” shaded boxes now and reserve that treatment solely for the future two-station extension to the Green Line. The shading is especially egregious where it overlaps the yellow “see inset” arrow… more on that inset later.
The complately vertical labels for most of the stations is also unfortunate: I can imagine everyone on the train turning their heads to the left to read them! Having one half of the labels along the Red Line sitting below the line and the other half above it – to allow room to put the METRO logo in the bottom right corner – also makes it harder to count stops along the line. The logo could move pretty easily to at the top right if the north pointer was shifted or resized, and labels set at a 45-degree angle would certainly be easier on the neck to read!
The inset! A great idea to show more detail where the all the lines intersect, but it’s very confusingly implemented. The main interchange is actually three separate platforms offset by about a city block or so. Northbound and southbound Red Line trains call at Central Station Main; westbound Green and Purple trains stop around the corner at Central Station Capitol, while eastbound Green and Purple trains use Central Station Rusk. The inset shows this arrangement fairly well, except it neglects to show the direction of travel along Capitol and Rusk streets for the Green and Purple lines! Even worse, both alignments have an arrow pointing eastbound (indicating the continuation of the lines off the edge of the inset), which makes things even more confusing. This is a really elementary thing to screw up quite so badly, and must be really, really annoying for those unfamiliar with the system.
Our rating: A stodgy, clunky map, with a horrendously flawed piece of wayfinding in its supposedly “clarifying” detail inset. Needs a rethink. One-and-a-half stars.