Submitted by “ZMapper”, who included a link to the full map on the official DART website.
Have we been there? No.
What we like: At first glance, this looks like a nice, clean, modern-looking system map – a breath of fresh air that stands out from the usual geographically-based “road map” bus maps. However, there are some serious usability issus that detract from the light and airy look, which I’ll discuss below.
I do like the geographical downtown inset – while it’s not a radical thing to do, it is handled quite deftly. And the approximate time to/from downtown markers are handy, if a little cumbersome in practice.
What we don’t like: First off, I loathe it when a transit agency refuses to offer a downloadable PDF on their website. DART instead makes you load the map in a clunky zoomable Flash interface, which you can then scroll around. And that’s the full extent of “interactivity”: you can’t click on a route for more information, for example.
And you really would like to be able to do that sometimes, because the map has absolutely no legend. What does a route number in a circle mean as opposed to one in a square? What do dotted route lines mean? (Answer: it means two completely different things. The dotted green route lines across the middle of the map indicate sections of express routes where the bus doesn’t stop; other dotted lines – where the dots actually merge into a “sausage link” shape – indicate intermittent service. But you’d never know that from the map itself).
Express routes (Route numbers 9X) are all shown in the same shade of green, but that’s the only visual differentiation they have from other routes. Even worse, Route 52 is a similar – but not identical – green, causing a lot of confusion on the left side of the map.
The delineation of neighborhoods by use of big balloon shapes is pretty unsuccessful and ugly. Even worse, there’s not a single street name on the map outside of the downtown inset. Bus riders rely on this type of information when deciding whether to use the system far more than subway or commuter rail riders and its omission is baffling.
To round things off, there’s a number of technical errors in the map, especially where corners haven’t been joined properly and white keylines appear across the middle of a route line.
Our rating: Looks glossy and modern, but suffers from huge usability problems. The definition of style over substance. One-and-a-half stars.
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