Submitted by Chris Coveney, who says:
Pet MBTA peeve – there is NO reason that angle of the E-line standoff can’t match the D-line on the Green Line strip Map . (Now it will endlessly annoy you too!)
Transit Maps says:
It’s not just the mismatched angles of the branches that makes my eye twitch on this map, Chris. I can’t help but notice that all the stops on the “B” branch that were closed in 2004 have had their names erased, but their station dots remain.
There’s also still a reference to Arborway (closed in 1985) on the “E” branch, although with a subtitle naming Heath Street as the actual terminus. The map itself dates from 1990 or later, as it used to read “Hynes Convention Center/ICA”, so it’s possible that this map was made in the period when the Arborway closure was still thought to be temporary and its use as the name of the branch line was still common.
Still, this is a map well and truly past its use-by date – which seems to be an all too common sight on the MBTA.
When you print your maps on big sheets of plywood, metal, or light boxes instead of paper, it makes updating them really hard.
This map was introduced with (and as far as I know, only seen in) the Type 8 trolleys on the MBTA, which means it entered service in early 1999. It’s just a big sticker too, which is fairly tacky. I don’t recall anyone realistically thinking that Arborway service was just temporary then, 14 years after it had been shut down.