Here’s a fantastic poster designed as the centre spread of an advertising supplement to various Bay Area newspapers to celebrate the first ten years of BART (1972–1982). The immediately recognisable system diagram is overlaid on top of some charming line illustrations of landmarks and attractions, with the routes of BART Express buses also indicated. It’s all very simple – the illustration looks like it’s been done with some coloured fine felt-tip pens – but it’s well drafted and quite effective, creating a fun little map to mark BART’s first decade.
If I have one minor complaint, it’s that the hand-lettered station names are quite hard to read, becoming lost in the busy illustrated background. However, as the map is really meant to be decorative, I hardly think this really matters much.
The other side of the poster folds up into two sheets filled with “BART facts”. See a high-res scan here.
Old streetcar maps often do a very poor job of actually showing how the routes ran – often just drawing an otherwise unmarked red line down the middle of roads on a standard cartographic map without any explanation of stops, loops or route names (see left for an example). Finding accurate information about the actual routing of individual lines can be a long and thankless process, so when long-time Transit Maps correspondent Karl Otterstrom tweeted not only a timetable, but a full turn-by-turn listing of streetcar routes in Spokane in 1912, I knew that I had the chance to make something awesome – a comprehensive map that showed every route in its entirety, untangling the old network and removing a lot of the mystery about how streetcars in Spokane actually worked.
Without further ado, here’s the map in my spiffy new zoomable map format. View the map in the window below – you can zoom in and out, pan around, and also go full screen. Or, you can also click here to experience the map in a full browser window. Read on underneath the map for a comprehensive overview of the design process.
I just wanted to share with you the official map of the buses (MetroBus) that link the city of Valencia (Spain) with towns of its metropolitan area. Map by the Valencia Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATMV).
Transit Maps says:
Oh dear. This is… bad.
MetroBus (a collective term for all the metropolitan buses run by various operating companies in and around Valencia) operates over 100 routes, but you’d be hard pressed to see that from this desultory diagram.
For a start, there are no route numbers on the map at all, so it’s almost impossible to do any kind of route planning. And then there’s the different colour coding for the routes, which has no apparent or useful meaning because the map doesn’t have a legend.
There’s absolutely no reason for any of the stop labels on this map to be set at an angle, and yet so many are. The label for El Saler doesn’t even sit on its route line, missing it by a good margin.
What exactly happens to the routes when they enter Valencia itself? The map seems to imply they all just suddenly terminate near the edge of Zone A, but I seriously doubt that’s the reality of the situation.
A very minor positive: the zones are at least drawn relatively competently and aren’t too distracting. I like the way that the zone letters are stacked neatly down the right edge of the map.
Our final word: Seems almost half-finished. Almost completely useless for any form of route planning.
Perhaps because of post-war austerity measures, this map was printed with just two inks – green and black – but still manages to do a lot of really good work.
The radial nature of the Green Line network definitely makes things easier for the designer, as only a few of the routes really interact with others as they spread inexorably outwards from the map’s centre. The large route numbers at each terminus are great, as is the eye-catching reversed white rectangle indicating central London which also refers readers to a more detailed map on the other side of the sheet. Labelling is in the almost-ubiquitous Gill Sans, which for me always seems to work a bit better as all-caps, such as at the terminus stations.
Our final word: The limited colour palette might have been imposed on the designer, but they’ve turned it into a positive – creating a distinctive and stylish piece.
I made an animated visualization of the light rail infrastructure of San Francisco from 1850–to–nowish. I was wondering if you would be interested in posting!
Transit Maps says:
I sure would be, Travis! This is a great 15-minute video that succinctly outlines the rise and fall of rail-based street transit in San Francisco, Oakland and even Marin County. The sheer number of competing companies in the early years is quite staggering! The impact of the Great Earthquake is covered, and there’s even a look at a couple of “alternate future” San Franciscos – one dominated by all the freeways that were once planned, and another where much of the rail infrastructure had been kept. Nicely animated and clearly narrated, it’s well worth a look to get an overview of transit history in the Bay Area.
Note: Travis acknowledges his error regarding San Francisco’s current population at the beginning of the video; don’t hold it against him!
Hello Cameron! Last week my WiFi was out so I was disrupted from my usual cartographic routine and decided try something outside the box. What I ended up coming up with was this cartogram showing travel time between light rail stations in the Twin Cities. I always find it to be a creature comfort when transit maps tell me travel time between stations, and it can really highlight some advantages (or disadvantages) of a system. It was a fun little endeavor and I wanted to share it!
Transit Maps says:
This is a sweet little visualization that almost seems willfully minimalist, even down to the choice of a “typewriter” font for the station labels. An unconventional choice, but I think it works given the immediacy and simplicity of the graphic. I have to admit that I never really know whether or not I’m meant to count the station dot as a “minute” with this type of graphic, although it probably doesn’t matter too much one way or the other if you account for the dwell time at each station.
There’s only one slight problem that I see: because the Mall of America and Union Depot terminal stations are the same distance down the page from the top, it could be assumed on a casual glance that it takes the same amount of time to reach both stations from The Interchange. However, because the Green Line takes a dogleg across the map, it actually takes quite a bit longer to reach its final destination. It’s not a big deal, but it does mean that the information contained in the diagram takes a little longer to parse.
Our final word: Simple and to the point, with an execution to match. Fun!
If the previous RideKC map is an example of a system diagram that doesn’t quite reach its full potential, then this is an example of one that surely does.
Really, every system map should strive to be this excellent: a simplified bespoke base map allows just the right amount of geographical information to be shown. The intelligent rotation of the map slightly counter-clockwise to match the local perception of “north”. The use of colour to enhance meaning and comprehension of the different services, including those from other transportation agencies at the bottom of the information hierarchy. Clear and stylish labelling. Great mode differentiation – there’s absolutely no doubt which lines represent the more frequently running light rail, even without consulting the comprehensive legend.
I could go on, but you get the idea – this is great transit map design. It definitely puts SacRT’s bland and generic light rail diagram (below) to shame, that’s for sure – one wonders why the latter hasn’t been updated to at least attempt to match the style of the system map?
For the record: the system map was designed by those fine folk at CHK America, and bears many of their design hallmarks.
I’m curious to get your thoughts on the full RideKC Regional Transit Map. RideKC debuted in 2015 as part of the KC Streetcar project [review of the original Streetcar diagram here – Cam], and the RideKC branding is now used for the buses on four transit systems across the metro area, in order to better unify transit across five counties and two states. This map does not show the streetcar extension from Union Station to Country Club Plaza, which will replace the MMAX bus rapid transit route when it opens in 2025.
Transit Maps says:
Before we get into the review proper, it’s interesting to note that even though is the current official system map available on RideKC’s website, it seems to be out of date. There should be three red MAX bus lines (Main, Troost and Prospect), but the map only shows the first two, with bus route 71 running along Prospect instead. Prospect MAX started running in 2019, so it’s pretty poor that the map hasn’t been updated since then (note the January 2018 date at the top right).
As for the map itself, one really has to wonder just why it’s so blue? It seems to me that the RideKC branding – which is predominately blue – has influenced this look, but not really for the better. The background is two different tints of blue (one for each state!), rivers are blue, highway shields are blue, the streetcar line is blue, bus lines are blue… the whole map is almost entirely monochromatic except for the afore-mentioned MAX lines, which cut overly-dominant red slashes across the map. For me, an instant improvement to this map would simply be to make the background a warm light yellow: it would give some much-needed colour contrast to the map, and the blue route lines would then have more “pop” against it.
Although the map is obviously meant to be viewed as a large printed poster (the PDF dimensions are 36″ x 48″), elements do seem to be very thin and spindly throughout. The sprawling nature of the network doesn’t help and creates a lot of dead space around the edges of the map, despite the welcome presence of inset maps for the far-flung destinations. I’d probably have liked to see a darker blue used for the titles of these insets to draw the eye to them better, and perhaps even a subtle drop shadow behind them to lift them off the page a bit.
Our final word: A competent system map that’s let down somewhat by the insistence on using blue for just about everything on it.
Hello, months ago I designed a curvilinear version of Barcelona’s railways and proximities. I think it’s interesting because it gives a new vision of the lines, and also I tried to make it satisfying to watch. I’d like to receive professional opinions of my works, so I send it in this interesting website.
Transit Maps says:
This is a really interesting design experiment, and Frank has executed it expertly – the curves are nice and smooth throughout with some lovely transitions. The right hand side of the diagram does become noticeably busier than the left because of the proliferation of Metro lines and stations there, though I imagine that it would take some serious reworking to expand that part out more. Curvilinear diagrams are pretty unforgiving if adjustments are needed – it’s not just a matter of moving a line or two over a bit like on a “traditional” rectilinear diagram, but instead completely redrawing the arc – or arcs! – that are affected.
The main problem I have with this diagram – as lovely as it is – is that it just doesn’t match my mental picture of Barcelona, one of the most famously gridded cities in the world. The coastline and surrounding rivers give some geographical cues, but I wonder if some more might come in handy – areas of green parkland at Montjuic and Parc Guell, for example. Without the straightness of Barcelona’s grand avenues to provide context, the curvaceous rail lines just seem to meander from station to station, often taking a fairly circuitous route to get there. Some people think curvilinear route lines are easier for the eye to follow, but it’s definitely a balancing act to usefully convey information while still looking aesthetically pleasing.
Our final word: Definitely interesting and quite graceful, though I still have my doubts about the overall utility of curvilinear diagrams like this.
I got interested in a historical map of the Moscow Metro featured on this site some time ago (November 2012, 4 stars). The radical simplicity of the visual language, using only straight lines and circles, gives a unique quality to the map, both in its high legibility and evocative power.
Realizing that it would be geometrically impossible to recreate this design to fit today’s expanded Moscow metro network, I started to apply a similar design language to a series of metro systems around the world, selected for the intermediate complexity of their network, allowing for a compact and unique-looking map, yet somehow challenging design-wise.
Building upon the original map of Moscow, I tried out ways to display additional layers of information: branching lines, route numbers, and interchanges to other public transit networks.
Transit Maps says:
This is a great little project, Cédric! I have to admit that I’m a little surprised at how well this style adapts to all the different networks, though Munich is probably pushing it to the absolute limits of what it can achieve. As you rightly say, this technique really works best on networks of “intermediate complexity”.
Of all the examples you’ve shown, I think Milan is my favourite: a series of similar interlocking arcs all connected by the straight line axis of Line 3… wonderful! Montreal is also quite lovely, although I could imagine that people who live there could take issue with the representation of “north”, which they generally take as meaning “away from the river”.
Our final word: Great work all around, and I look forward to more diagrams made in the same style in the future!
