Photo — Historical Map: Boston Sights

September 25, 2012
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Boston seems to rival only Washington, DC for old system maps being left in place at stations and on trains. This photo was taken in August of this year, but the map dates from between 2004 to 2008 (the extension of the Silver Line to City Point is the giveaway). I’d probably lean towards the earlier end of that range, due to the “Silver Line Waterfront” designation.

One thing to note is how much cleaner this map looks than the current one: helped a lot by no geography at all, no key bus routes, and interchanges with commuter rail being marked with a neat purple square rather than the entire line.

That’s not to say that the map isn’t without its little quirks, though – the large initial capital letters on the station labels are pretty ugly and the triple asterisk as a footmark notation at Bowdoin station is faintly ridiculous. And the Silver Line still joins onto the loop around Logan Airport the wrong way…

Source: Mr.Konstantin/Flickr

Fantasy Map: Biergärten in München

September 24, 2012
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Oktoberfest started yesterday in Munich, so I thought it would be appropriate to share this fun little map from 2008 of Munich’s beer gardens laid out in the familiar style of that city’s S- and U-Bahn map.

However, beware! Although this map looks quite similar to the official one, the “lines” shown here don’t seem to correlate to the actual routes in real life — I would not recommend using this map on your Munich pub crawl, especially after a few Maßkrüge of fine German beer!

Source: pubstops.co.uk

Advertisement: Barclays Center “Minutes From Everywhere”

September 24, 2012
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How to sell New Yorkers on a new stadium: point out they don’t have to drive to it. (Source: ad in the 2nd Avenue F train station.)

The problem with doing a subway-themed ad that will appear in the actual subway itself is that it’s not allowed to look anything like the official map. So we end up with this weird Vignelli wannabe instead. However, it does get its point across quite effectively, so in that regard I would call it a success.

British Humour

September 21, 2012
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engers:

When it comes down to it, I still prefer an actual printed transit map in my hands, anyway. I’ve navigated London, Paris, Berlin, Boston, New York and more without an iPhone map: I think I’ll get by in the future as well.

Photo: We Are Here

September 20, 2012
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The Washington DC Metro two map system at work.

Source: claryblaze/Flickr

Fantasy Map: Grand Theft Auto IV Liberty City Subway

September 19, 2012
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By all accounts, Grand Theft Auto IV is a pretty awesome game. However, it would seem that the game’s designers are lousy urban planners, as this has to be the most ridiculous subway layout I have ever seen. Seriously, it looks like two racetrack layouts from a 1990s video game have been superimposed on the city with some stations added at random.

What is the point of the northern track between Huntington St and the Airport if there are no stops along it? And don’t even get me started on the whole system of inner and outer loops for each line that change route designations at some undetermined location along the way. There are two actual subway lines shown on this map (the Algonquin-Bohan loop and the Algonquin-Airport loop), but it somehow takes eight letters and numerals to describe them.

The game’s designers are basically just adding noise to make the system seem more like a “real” subway than it actually is – probably because “Liberty City” is meant to be a cipher for the Big Apple itself, which has a big, complex subway system with lots of routes.

But at least it’s cheap: a trip on the LTA only costs a dollar! I wonder who subsidises that?

Source: loh_junwei/Flickr – link no longer active

Historical Map: Birds-Eye View of Chicago, 1908

September 18, 2012
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Courtesy of the always amazing Big Map Blog (you really should follow them on Twitter), here’s an incredible birds-eye view of Chicago and its elevated railways from 1908. More than anything, I love the minute attention to detail on this – smoke curls from factory chimneys, almost every tree in the city’s parks seems to be present. Of particular note is the spur line out to Union Stock Yards, the self-proclaimed “butchery capital of the world”. So many worked at the yards that this line was an absolute necessity to move them in and out.

Our rating: Incredible attention to detail combined with a breathtaking viewpoint make this compelling. 5 stars!

Digitally-restored prints of this map are available in my online print store.

Source: Big Map Blog

Photo: Old Paris Metro Map (Detail), c. 1969-1977

September 17, 2012
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This is simply gorgeous. The fact that the RER terminates at Nation dates this map from between 1969 (when the RATP first purchased the line from the SNCF) and 1977 (when the line was extended through Paris and became the RER “A” line we know today). The original post on Flickr does not note where this map is (or was) located.

Source: lionelofparis/Flickr

Photo: Bus Maps, Seoul, South Korea

September 17, 2012
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Probably actually a lot easier to use than they first appear.

Source: riNux/Flickr