Submission – Historical Map: Amsterdam GVB Map by Hans van der Kooi, 1980s

June 27, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Alain Lemaire, who says:

this map might interest you – in response to your blog post of Joan Zalacain’s Amsterdam tram map.

It seems the 30/60 degree paradigm is indeed well suited to Amsterdam’s topological layout. Too bad this once official map is no longer in use today.

Transit Maps says:

Thanks to Alain for sending this beauty in! Simply put, this is lovely work. What I really like about this map is the way it combines multiple tram routes into just four colours, each representing a different service pattern:

  • Red for trams from Amsterdam Centraal station to points west.
  • Blue for Amsterdam Centraal to points east
  • Green for east-west “inner ring” cross-town services
  • Yellow for east west “outer ring” cross-town services

This approach also has the benefit of implying service frequency: the thicker the line, the more often a tram comes along. Other services — the Metro and NS trains are incorporated with a minimum of fuss, and there’s clear information about connecting services where appropriate. Large bodies of water (but only the Amstel, not the city’s famous canals) give some geographical scope to the map. If I have one complaint, it’s that I’m never really a fan of keylining a yellow route line with black: it always looks a little overpowering to my eyes.

Our rating: Fantastic, restrained, useful European 1980s design. Four-and-a-half-stars.

Photo: Lithuania and the World

June 21, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

A rather odd map of Lithuania on the wall at the Klaipeda inter-city bus terminal. Ostensibly, I guess it depicts the coach network, or even just the nation’s main highways, but it does seem odd to have a city – Alytus – marked on the map when there’s no apparent way to get there.

There’s also a couple of interesting choices made for international destinations: Tallinn and Riga (the other Baltic state capitals) are fair enough, as is Kaliningrad in the Russian exclave of Kaliningad Oblast… but Frankfurt and Freiburg im Breisgau? Freiburg is almost 2,000km by road from Klaipeda – that’s one heck of a road trip! Berlin? Never heard of it.

But at least the map is shiny. And it has a cool coat of arms on it, too.

Source: roomman/Flickr

Official Map: Jungfraubahnen, Switzerland

June 21, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

Another stunning panoramic painted rail map from the Alps of Switzerland – its very similar to this one of the Zentralbahn (Nov 2012, 4 stars), which can actually be seen on this map entering from the lower left and terminating at Interlaken.

The map shows the railways around the Jungfrau mountain, operated by different companies, but marketed together as “Jungfrau – the Top of Europe”. The Jungfraujoch station sits almost three vertical kilometres higher than Interlaken, and is the highest railway station in Europe. The last 7 km of the trip is all within a tunnel through the massive mountain range (shown as a dashed line on the map above): two intermediary stations have panoramic windows to observe the spectacular scenery.

The map is quite beautiful, making the absolute most out of the spectacular landscape, although the sheer lushness of the illustration can make some of the text a little hard to make out. As an added bonus, other connecting services outside the Jungbahn network – be it rail or aerial cable car – are also shown in black.

Just in case this map has inspired you to head off to Switzerland to catch the next train, be warned that this trip is not cheap. The trip from Kleine Scheidegg station (the start of the actual Jungfraubahn to the summit) costs 120 Swiss Francs (roughly €100, or $US130). If you want to come from Interlaken Ost, that’s a mere 196 CHF (€160/$US211). Ouch!

Our rating: Stunningly beautiful illustrated map. Four stars.

Source: guywong/Flickr

Unofficial Map: Dodecalinear Amsterdam Tram Map, by Joan Zalacain

June 19, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps
Tags:

“Dodecalinear” is fancy designer-speak for a 30-degree grid: it refers to the fact that the route lines can be laid out in twelve directions instead of the eight allowed by a standard 45-degree or octolinear map.

To put it in simpler terms: imagine six lines that pass through a central point – from that point, you can now travel in any of twelve directions. Technically, you can use any combination of opposing angles and still have a dodecalinear structure, it’s just that the regular spacing of 30-degree angles usually creates the most visually appealing look.

That said, creating a competent dodecalinear transit map is easier said than done, and should really only be attempted when it can bring a tangible benefit to the map. I used this form of map to great effect in my own unofficial rail map for Portland, Oregon – here, the 30/60-degree angles allowed me to more accurately depict the street grid in the downtown area of the city.

This map, designed by Joan Zalacain as part of his Masters of Information Design at the renowned University of Reading, certainly uses the extra angles to good effect. Amsterdam’s radial canals almost beg for this type of approach, and it’s executed deftly. The final version at the bottom right of this panel, with all the details of the city added in, looks quite superb, even in this dimly-lit Instagram photo.

Source: nghtwrks/Instagram – link no longer active

Photo: Slope

June 18, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Miscellany
Tags:

The Lyon Metro map (March 2012, 4 stars) on the platform at Croix-Paquet station – reputedly the steepest Metro station in the world, with a 17 percent grade! Although nominally part of Lyon’s Metro system, the “C” Line is really a refurbished rack-and-pinion funicular, with the earliest trains running as far back as 1891.

Source: BrusselsBen/Flickr

Submission – Official Map: Bus and Ferry Network of the Faroe Islands, 2013

June 18, 2013
comment 1
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Helgi Waag, who says:

The entire bus and ferry system of the Faroe Islands. The online version is interactive. Hubs are in boxes and sea routes in blue.

The Faroe Islands – a remote island nation under Denmark’s sovereignty located about halfway between Norway and Iceland – isn’t necessarily somewhere you associate with a bustling and modern transportation network, but here it is!

This map shows the Bygdaleiðir, or “village buses”, which connect the cities and towns that are accessible to each other by road (including some that travel through undersea tunnels), and the all-important ferry routes between the islands. The Number 7 route shown on the map between the capital, Tórshavn, and the southern island of Suðuroy is a two-hour journey in good weather.

Not shown are the local buses – or Bussleiðin – in Tórshavn, which are operated by the city council, not the Strandfaraskip Landsins company. Interestingly, these buses are completely completely free of charge, an initiative introduced in 2007 to encourage people to use public transportation instead of driving their cars.

The map itself is a nicely stylised version of the archipelago, and information is presented nice and clearly. Nice bright route colours, too. My only complaint is that the interactive Flash version of the map on the website is the only version of the map available. Not all devices (especially mobile devices!) support Flash, so there should be an alternate image or PDF version easily available for those users.

Our rating: Nice work from an unexpected location. Three stars.

Source: Official Strandfaraskip Landsins website

Submission – Global Subway Spectrum by Nick Rougeux

June 15, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Visualizations
Tags:

Submitted by Nick, who says:

I’ve been following your blog for a little while now and have really enjoyed your posts on transit maps – both familiar and completely new to me. I’ve recently become interested in different ways of looking at maps from a data standpoint. I’ve attached a screenshot of a project I just released that I thought you or your readers may enjoy. It’s not a map or diagram but it’s a data visualization based on the colors used in all the official rapid transit diagrams from around the world and where they are on a global spectrum of colors.

Transit Maps says:

Quite simply, this is phenomenal work. Seeing how route colours are used by transit maps around the world is absolutely fascinating, and the number of ways that Nick presents the data is astounding. As a designer, I can see that this could be an invaluable tool for creating a colour palette for maps, although I wish that the charts included the RGB or Hex values for each colour for easy reference. I could easily lose track of time exploring this!

Source: Nick’s Global Subway Spectrum website

Official Future Map: Los Angeles Metro Rail

June 14, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Future Maps
Tags:

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Agency released a “under construction”  map yesterday, showing all the lines that are planned for the near future: Expo Line Phase 2, Gold Line Foothill Extension, the Crenshaw/LAX Line, Purple Line Extension and the ambitious downtown Regional Connector.

Overall, the map fits quite well into the existing LA Metro design aesthetic, although the crowded downtown area is now starting to make the station labelling look a little cramped and messy. It also presents a much larger problem in that its depiction of the Regional Connector is seriously flawed.

As seen in the second picture above, the Connector will cross the Red and Purple Lines after the 7th Street/Metro Center station and have a stop at 2nd Place/Hope – on the west side of the existing Red/Purple tracks. However, the new map chooses to place the 2nd Place/Hope station on the east side of those tracks, and has the entire Connector parallel to them, instead of showing the crossings.

A lot of this comes down to the limited space available in this part of the map, and the Silver Line is already taking up the available space on the west side of the Red/Purple Lines. However, while this is a diagrammatic map, it’s still hugely important that stations are placed in the correct positions relative to each other. Really, the central part of the map should have been completely redesigned to accommodate the Connector in its correct position, rather than simply tacking it on to the existing map.

Once the Connector is completed, it seems likely that service patterns on Metro rail will change, with the Gold, Blue and Expo lines drastically reconfigured – so there’s a chance this somewhat lazy error will get fixed then.

Source: LA Metro website

Photo: Bus Map of Northern Sichuan, China

June 13, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Miscellany
Tags:

Just in case you forgot you were looking at a bus map, we’ve helpfully added sixteen – yes, sixteen! – clip art images of buses to remind you.

Pair with a similarly ridiculous train map from Poland.

Source: Philou.cn/Flickr

Historical Map: National Railways of Zimbabwe, c. 1985

June 13, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

A pretty basic two-colour map of the (then newly-independent) Zimbabwe’s rail network produced by the government’s Land Survey Office. Once you look past the eye-searing red ink and “transportation” clip art, there’s a couple of interesting things on the map.

Firstly, the map actually does a pretty good job of showing how Zimbabwe’s rail network fits in with other connecting rail services in southern Africa. Secondly, it shows an interesting colonial oddity: the Zimbabwe National Railway actually runs all the way through Botswana to Mafeking, South Africa (the bottom left quarter of the map). This dates back to 1911, when Rhodesia Railways was granted a special agreement to preserve its rights of access under the Tati Concessions Land Act – basically a huge mineral rights land grab by a private company.

Much of the network shown here is still in use today, but due to the high price of imported diesel fuel in the impoverished nation, Zimbabwe has been forced to utilise old steam trains: coal is plentiful and much cheaper.

Source: mikeyashworth/Flickr