A lovely above-door strip map from Portugal’s capital. By sacrificing geographical reality (only the Tagus River gives any sense of orientation), the three lines are able to be laid out for maximum clarity and legibility. The comprehensive legend has symbols for connections to the Metro, the private Fertagus commuter rail line to Setúbal, ferries, and buses. It even has a “camera” icon for stations with points of interest nearby, and a little “umbrella and beach towel” indicating stations with connections to the Atlantic Coast beaches.
If I had one complaint, it’s that the green oval indicating the centre of Lisbon looks a little overbearing and tacked-on compared to the simplicity of the rest of the diagram.
A very interesting early topological transit diagram from Istanbul. It’s tricky to date precisely: the best I can do is the range 1923–1939, based on the lines shown and the fact that the STM was dissolved at the latter date when transit in Istanbul was nationalised.
It’s probably roughly contemporaneous with other early topological maps like George Dow’s work for the LNER in 1929, although I actually see this map being born out of necessity, rather than being any great pioneering design work. That’s because the map is printed on a small ticket, and was used by the ticket seller/conductor to mark the destination that the ticket is valid to. Note the blue marks on “Aller” and “Bechiktache” – this was sold as a one-way ticket to that destination. Obviously, a geographical map couldn’t fit into this tiny space, hence the necessity for this simplified topological representation.
The other interesting thing about this map is that Istanbul is flipped along the axis of the Golden Horn. Destinations that should be on the left of that waterway (looking at it on a standard map, with north to the top) are shown on the right and vice versa. The tram bridge across the Golden Horn is clearly shown on the map (as “Pont”, bridge in French). I know that Arabic reads from right to left: is this flipping of locations a concession to that?
Finally, I adore the little squiggly arrows that show how the lines connect between each stop.
Our rating: Amazing transit ephemera from the early 20th century. Five stars!
An interesting two-color bus map from 1975. Hot pink!
Strangely, while the service area boundary is heavily squared off and stylised, the routes themselves are presented very accurately. Really not the most usable map, as the route numbers are very difficult to follow from end to end. The meaning behind the dotted route lines also doesn’t appear to be explained at all on the map, but may be elsewhere in the timetable book in which this map appeared.
Our rating: Probably better when combined with the rest of the information in the timetable book, but doesn’t really work in isolation like this. Groovy mid-70s design, though. Two stars.
I’ve featured a couple of dodecalinear maps recently (both for Amsterdam – here and here), but this future transit map for Austin and San Antonio has got ‘em covered. It’s a hexadecalinear map. That is, there are sixteen possible directions for a route line to head from any given point.
Interestingly however, the angles between the route lines aren’t evenly arranged. Instead of 0 – 22.5 – 45 – 67.5 – 90 degree arrangement, this map uses 0 – 26.5 – 45 – 63.5 – 90. Ultimately, it doesn’t make a huge visual difference, and the resulting grid is adhered to accurately. If anything, it helps to limit the width of the map because of the long diagonal line from Austin to San Antonio.
Normally, I’d say that a 16-directional transit map is total overkill, seeing as most maps only have eight directions to move in and manage perfectly well, but this actually looks very striking and effective while probably also more closely conforming to the actual geography of the area. The legend is also excellent, clearly delineating currently operating, planned and under construction routes for all the transit modes.
I’m not so keen on the completely unnecessary angled labels for many of the stations: there’s plenty of room for horizontal labelling on this map (it’s okay for the street names to follow the direction of the road). The project logo is also pretty blandly generic and doesn’t really fit in with the stylish look of the map itself (Neutraface at work again!)
Our rating: Attractive and full of promise for the future – hugely important in trying to affect a change of mind-set regarding transportation options in a auto-reliant area like Texas (where – like large parts of the U.S. – the most popular new vehicle is a Ford F-150). Four stars!
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.
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.
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.
“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
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.
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.
