Oooh, pretty LED lights – so futuristic! I like that the orange lights show the “expected route”, as if the train could suddenly leave the tracks and go a completely different direction.
Source: Ravenous Pigeon/Flickr
I haven’t met Mark, but we have chatted a few times about my work – he had some very kind words about my French TGV Map (see the third comment on this page). Super nice guy, and definitely knows his stuff. His books are a huge part of my interest in transit maps.
Today I learned that there’s another game based on the London Underground apart from (the somewhat ridiculous) “Mornington Crescent” – “The London Game”. Where can I get a copy?
Source: Zed.Cat/Flickr – link no longer active
The distortion of Manhattan on NYC subway maps over the years, expressed as a height-to-width ratio. Fascinating stuff from a New York Times article in 2010 enumerating the changes in the latest version of the map.
One of the best things about this blog is finding people out there who — like me — aren’t always satisfied with the status quo and want to improve on the transit maps that are out there.
Take these maps of the EmX* bus rapid transit system in Eugene/Springfield, Oregon. The first one is the current system map issued by the Lane Transit District. While it’s functional enough, it’s certainly not very exciting. I always believe that a good transit map should be enticing and attractive to draw people towards it as a transportation option. In effect, the map is an advertisement for the service — if it looks modern and well-designed, the system benefits by association.
The second map is of a potential EmX system in 50 years’ time, made by Dave Amos, based off information found on LTD’s website. Leaving the accuracy of the map aside, as I can’t really comment on that without a lot of further research (and Dave himself admits the map is somewhat speculative), let’s concentrate on the aesthetics.
Dave’s map seems to draw a lot of design cues from the London Underground map, which is good in that it instantly takes on a clean, well-designed look… and a little bad in that it drains the map of its own unique identity a bit. It would be nice to see a map that channels a bit of the character of the city it represents, but this is still a very attractive piece of design. HF&J’s Whitney is a nicely understated, yet modern sans serif font and works well here. The main hubs of Eugene and Springfield are emphasised well, and the inclusion of the important University of Oregon and Lane Community College campuses is welcome.
That’s not to say the map is perfect: the need to show the eastern extent of Springfield’s city boundary creates a lot of empty space, which in turn reduces the size of the routes themselves. I think the names of the streets that the routes follow could be rotated to follow the direction of the streets, like in a street directory, rather than remaining horizontal all the time. The 18th & Willamette station label could be split into two lines to prevent it being confused with the nearby Jefferson station.
There’s also a couple of operational concepts that aren’t shown on the map which might be worth considering. Some sections of the routes operate along one-way couplets, which might be worth showing for clarity and ease of use (For example, an eastbound stop might be one block over from the westbound stop – a handy thing for a traveller to know!). I also know that, currently, buses operate both clockwise and counter-clockwise around the Gateway loop. This is indicated on the current map, but not on Dave’s.
* Side Note: “EmX” is meant to be pronounced as “Em-Ex”, short for “Emerald Express”. But try as I might, I still just keep saying “E-Em-Ex”…
By all accounts, the Utah Transit Authority’s rail system is a modern and successful one. However, this is something you’d never guess from their system map, which is one of the most cobbled-together, unprofessionally done maps I’ve ever seen.
Have we been there? Yes, but I’ve never caught the train there.
What we like: The required information is there to be found if you can bear to look at the map long enough.
What we don’t like: Put simply, this is terrible, terrible work.
The downtown area is ridiculously cramped (the Planetarium and Arena station dots actually overlap slightly!), leading to some ugly and difficult to follow labelling of stations, especially between the Gallivan Plaza and 900 East stations. Things could be improved somewhat by setting the station addresses in a smaller, lighter font to at least alleviate some confusion.
The lines that point from the labels to the stations have no consistency at all: some are longer than the station name, others are shorter, leading to a very messy look.
The map also seems to think that its users are utterly incapable of understanding what a “transfer station” is, as it includes giant, redundant call out boxes that point at five separate stations explaining the concept.
The call out boxes for the stations that allow transfers to different modes are large and intrusive and could be much better handled with icons that represent each mode.
The inset map of the track layout at Fashion Place West station is somewhat useful (although I think signage at the station itself would suffice, as it’s not a particularly complex arrangement), but looks like a generic piece of clip art.
The presence of ESRI fonts in the PDF of this map leads me to believe that this map is based off GIS data, which has only been slightly tweaked to create the final map. Both for aesthetics and information hierarchy, I think the map could have greatly benefited from being redrawn from scratch to allow better spacing of elements. Other parts of the map, especially the call out boxes, need to be rethought completely.
Our rating: Awful. 1 star (and that’s probably being generous).
Source: Official UTA website
One type of map we haven’t covered yet here at Transit Maps is the night services map, often considered a very poor relation to the main map. However, there are some excellent examples out there, especially this black and yellow beauty from the city of Zurich in Switzerland.
Have we been there? No.
What we like: Graphically very striking with its black and yellow colour scheme. Good differentiation between bus and train services accomplished by use of thick and thin route lines, and some subtle work at stations: train stations are white, major bus interchanges are a light tint of yellow, and minor bus stations are a darker tint of yellow. Fits seamlessly into the next map up in the series, showing night services in the Canton of Zurich.
What we don’t like: The way the S-Bahn tracks disappear between the Hauptbahnhof and Bellevue (re-emerging only to cross the river on a bridge) may be logical – the tracks are in a tunnel – but it breaks the flow of the route badly.
Our rating: A great example of the night services map genre. 4 stars!
Source: Official ZVV website
Here’s a fascinating reworking of Harry Beck’s original 1933 Tube map that I haven’t seen before. Apparently it’s from an article in a journal from November 1933 that details the work required to upgrade the electrical services on the Underground.
Apart from the stark black and white treatment and addition of the power stations and substations, what’s really interesting about this map are the little tweaks and changes that have already occurred since the first edition of the map, produced just months beforehand. The Northern end of the Piccadilly Line has now reached Cockfosters, whereas the original map shows it as under construction. The District Line also no longer reaches Uxbridge, being replaced by Piccadilly Line service. The eastern end of the District Line on the original map just bled off the edge of the page; now it has a (slightly cramped) arrow head indicating that the line continues.
In fact, apart from the use of diamonds for interchange stations instead of circles, this map actually has far more in common with the 1936 edition of the London Underground Map than the 1933… which just goes to show how Beck – ever the perfectionist – was always tinkering with and perfecting his design.
Source: IanVisits/Flickr
A fantastic old in-car map from London’s old Metropolitan Railway: the world’s first underground railway and the precursor to the modern London Underground. Today, former Metropolitan Railway tracks and stations are used by the London Underground’s Metropolitan, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Piccadilly and Jubilee lines.
I’m guessing this map is from around 1930 or so, as the Railway’s lines are substantially complete apart from the Stanmore extension out of Wembley Park, which opened in 1932. Of course, by 1933, all of London’s railways were amalgamated under the auspices of the London Passenger Transport Board and the modern Underground as we know it today was born.
Side note: We really should use the word “shewn” more often.
Source: mikeric/Flickr
Looks like an in-car map from the early 1990s (see the “under construction, 1993” notice at the bottom left for Roosevelt station).
Source: Rob Elliott/Flickr
