Official Map: RENFE Cercanías Madrid Commuter Rail, 2013

June 12, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

Following on my review of Madrid’s old-is-new Metro Map (June 2013, 3.5 stars), I’ve had quite a few requests for Madrid’s commuter rail map, operated by the state-owned RENFE rail company – so here it is!

The map is a very solid effort, with unusual but effective station markers: small squares that “cut through” the route lines. The overall design is very angular, with no smoothing of the route lines or the zone boundaries that sit behind the map. It certainly helps give the map its own unique look, although I find it a little too harsh.

One negative is the ugly route designations – the bold “C” (perhaps trying to look somewhat like the Cercanías logo) next to a condensed numeral just looks odd and the placement of some of them seems arbitrary and/or cramped.

Finally, the depiction of zones on a transit map is almost always problematic: here, the harshly-angled and oddly-shaped grey areas dominate the map far too much, giving it a zebra-like appearance. The zones also require far too many labels, liberally sprinkled just about everywhere.

Our rating: Informational, with a look all of its own, but let down by a few jarring elements. Solid overall. Three stars.

Source: Official RENFE website

File Under Awesome: London Tube Map Recreated With Lego Bricks

June 12, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Miscellany
Tags:

Sent my way by just about everyone this morning, this Lego map is one of five located at Tube stations across London as another part of the Tube’s 150th birthday celebrations. Each map shows the Tube at a different stage of development from the 1920s right through to the version shown here: a near-future map for 2020.

Painstakingly assembled from thousands of Lego bricks, the map looks great, although Neil Bennett from Digital Arts notes that its actual usefulness is pretty limited:

“… in the few moments we were there, tourists and travellers attempted to use the map to navigate their way across London and soon wandered off in search of a real map looking confused. Others were more impressed, and joined us in snapping photos of the map.”

Seeing as the maps are more art than information design, I don’t really see this as a huge problem, myself. The maps will remain on display at King’s Cross (this map), South Kensington, Piccadilly Circus, Green Park, and Stratford stations over the summer, and then will be transferred to the London Transport Museum.

Sources: Design Arts, BuzzFeed UK – with more pictures of the map

Historical Map: Indicateur d’Itinéraires, Paris, c. 2003

June 11, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

An old-school interactive Metro map in Paris. Simply press one of the 360 or so buttons underneath the map, and a path lights up from your current location to your chosen destination. Who needs a fancy touch screen kiosk? I particularly like the way that the furtherest reaches of the RER lines are compressed into diagrammatic form to allow the centre of Paris to be shown as large as possible.

This particular example is still in use, despite it being around ten years out of date: the extension of Ligne 14 from Madeleine to St. Lazare (which opened in December 2003) is shown as being under construction.

Source: Hervé Platteaux/Flickr

Photo: Detail of a Province of Milan Transit Map, Italy

June 6, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Miscellany
Tags:

Looks like a visually interesting and abstract map, but I haven’t been able to track down a full version on the Internet. Looks like it might show bus service (green and thin black lines) and regional rail (thick grey line at the bottom of the picture). Does anyone know where I can find the whole map?

Source: mikek/Flickr

Update: More Process Work Behind the New Moscow Metro Map

June 6, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

As we reported late last month, the new Art Lebedev Studios Moscow Metro map is now in use around the system and on trains.

One thing that the studio has been fantastic at right from the start is documenting the creative process, and they’re not finished yet. Over on their website is a wealth of behind the scenes information that shows how much work has been put into these beautiful maps.

The map had to be adapted to fit six types of train carriages, each with different requirements, so the design team made field trips armed with printouts to ensure that everything fitted perfectly. Multiple iterations of the wheelchair-accessible symbol were created, to ensure that it had the same visual weight as the parking symbol that often appears next to it. Allowances for prescribed advertising space was made. The “Rules of the Ride”, prescribed by law, were made attractive and easier to read and separated from the map itself to make the usable space for the actual map larger. Icons were tweaked, revised, and discarded. Even once the design was finalised, there was still multiple rounds of proofing and corrections before the map went live.

Seriously, if you’re at all interested in the design and production of transit maps, you must read this case study. It’s currently in Russian, but Google Chrome/Translate does a pretty good job of at least giving you a good idea of what the plentiful pictures are showing.

Description Page  |  Process  |  In Use

First bonus: the map is available as a vector Adobe Illustrator file for download (EPS, 9.8MB) — free for use by individuals or businesses as long as Lebedev Studios are credited.

Second bonus: At the bottom of the process page is a scrubbable 41-image version of the map that animates the entire history of the Moscow Metro from 1935, all drawn in the style of the new map. Beautiful work!

FIVE STARS!

Historical Map: Mornington Peninsula Road and Bus Lines Map, c. 1940s

June 5, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

Here’s a beautifully drawn old map created for the Peninsula Bus Lines in Victoria, Australia by Robert J. Amor. There’s no date, but the general aesthetics and the presence of “Military Camps” near Mount Martha leads me to believe the map is from around 1940-1947, after which Balcombe Camp became the Army Apprentice School.

Elements to really look out for: the beautiful ornate compass rose, the olde-time scrolls enclosing town names, and the cameo pictures of David Collins, the lieutenant governor of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) who founded the first colony in modern-day Victoria on the peninsula in 1803; Matthew Flinders, the great naval explorer; and the “wild man” William Buckley. There’s even a nubile mermaid combing her hair at the bottom left!

Source: Frankston City Libraries/Flickr

Official Map: Everything Old is New Again for the Madrid Metro

June 3, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

Over the weekend, Madrid rolled out a new map for its comprehensive Metro and light rail system. After six long and controversial years, the previous map (March 2012, 2.5 stars) – with everything reduced to severe 90-degree angles and very little spatial relationship to the real world – has been consigned to the dustbin.

In its place, a new map that looks strangely familiar. The design of the map has returned in-house and Metro’s designers have obviously looked to the more traditional maps of the past for inspiration: the layout in the central part of Madrid is almost identical to the 1981 map, even taking into account new route lines.

The map also features the Metro’s new controversy: the renaming of Sol station as “Vodafone Sol”, with the telephone company’s logo and distinctive red featured prominently on the map at that location (right in the middle!). Apparently, the cost of producing new maps and brochures is funded by this measure, so we can’t really complain too much, I guess…

Personally, I like this map much better than the previous one, although it’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. The treatment of terminus stations is clumsy and inconsistent, and the banded fare zones are too hard on the eye – much as they are on the current London Underground map. One thing I do miss from the previous map is the indication of how long (in minutes) transfers between platforms at the bigger interchange stations could take.

Our rating: A (welcome) blast from the past! Three-and-a-half stars.

Source: Metro de Madrid website

Official Map: Prague Metro 2013 Flood Map

June 3, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

As you may already know, Prague is currently bracing itself for its heaviest flooding in recent memory. In preparation, the city has shut down large portions of its subterranean Metro system and has added temporary tram and bus services to compensate. This map, obviously produced in a hurry, outlines those service changes with a minimum of fuss. It also shows which tram lines have been cancelled until further notice. With events like this, informing the public of service changes as quickly and effectively as possible is paramount, as recent events like Hurricane Sandy show. 

Source: Official DPP website – link no longer active

Historical Maps: Evolution of the Stockholm Metro Map, c.1958-1971

June 2, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

Here’s a fantastic photo showing three versions of the map for the Stockholms tunnelbana, probably taken at the Stockholm Transit Museum. By comparing the three maps and the looking at the stations shown on each of them, I’ve roughly dated each as follows.

The top map is from between November 19, 1958 (when the Farsta station opened), and November 14, 1959, when Rågsved station (shown on the middle map, but not on the top one) opened.

The middle map is from around late 1964/early 1965, as it shows Fruangen and Ornsberg stations (1964), but only shows Ostermalmstorg (1965) as being under construction.

The final map is from between 1967 and 1971, as it’s after Ropsten and Vårberg have opened, but before the extension to Farsta Strand has been built. Interestingly, this extension is shown as being “under construction” on the middle map, but makes no appearance at all on the final map.

What’s truly fascinating about this trio of maps is the rapid transition from geographical map, through a more stylised map (note that it retains some semblance of a coastline where the tracks cross water), to a severe rectilinear diagram in just 13 years or so. Each map is also quite beautiful in their own way.

Route numbers on the second and third maps allow service patterns and short run lines to be shown very effectively. I think the treatment on the final map is one of the best I have ever seen: it’s clear to see exactly which stations Line 13 runs between, for example.

Compare to the current Stockholm transit map (Nov. 2011, 3.5 stars)

Source: frettir/Flickr – I recommend clicking through to the largest image to view the maps in detail

Official Map: San Francisco Bay Area Regional Transit Map, 2013

May 30, 2013
comment 1
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Reed Wagner, who says:

This map appears to be part of a greater “wayfinding” campaign by the SF Bay Area MTC – it appears at major Caltrain, Muni and BART stations and presumably is elsewhere (I took this picture at Caltrain 4th & King. In comparison to the maps made by Calurbanist, it seems that the official MTC map is falling short in every regard other than information overload in a messy form.

Transit Maps says:

It’s pretty difficult to disagree with Reed’s summary of this map: it is messy, cluttered and difficult to decipher. It’s a little unfair to compare it to the excellent Calurbanist map (which only shows rail transit and thus becomes less cluttered instantly), but this is still pretty poor work. The main failings, in my opinion:

It’s neither a map or a diagram, and suffers from this hybrid approach. Cities and towns are in (or close to) their correct geographical location, but are simply connected with straight lines between them, creating a lot of very unattractive angles throughout the map.

The ugly and unnecessary feathered shading behind the route lines to denote (very approximate) urban limits. Use a label for each major city: San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, etc, then let the station names do the rest of the work. This map has enough problems with colour already (see next point) without introducing more!

Finally, the legend of the map indicates that there are 38 (yes, 38!) different transit agencies or services shown on the map, and the only visual difference between them is the colour of their route line. It’s too much work for colour to do alone, and certainly isn’t very colour-blind friendly! Some attempt at differentiating modes (BART, commuter rail, bus, Amtrak, etc.) by using something like different stroke widths would allow less colours to be used overall (as the same colours could then be used more than once), while also adding an extra dimension of useful information to the map.

Our rating: More hindrance than help – the information as shown takes way too long to be interpreted by the reader, which isn’t very useful at a crowded railway station! One-and-a-half stars.