I’ve always loved this one-off poster by designer/illustrator Erin Jang. Designed specifically to showcase her three-year-old nephew’s favourite places in New York, it’s a fantastic example of pitch-perfect design: bright, bold and colourful with whimsical illustrations balancing the geometric route lines.
Another entry in the “Gigantic Map on the Wall of a Railway Station” category, this time at the SNCF station in Bordeaux, France. The modern signage in the foreground and on the ticket office looks sadly out of place in the grandeur of this amazing space.
Source: henribergius/Flickr
Related to the last post about the Amtrak Super High-Speed Northeast Corridor, here’s a personal project of mine from 2010 showing all of Amtrak’s train routes in the style of a subway map. Amtrak’s own map doesn’t break out the actual routes in any way, nor does it show all stations due to geographic limitations, which makes journey planning quite difficult in my opinion.
The two things my map really highlight are the incredible dominance of the Northeast Corridor in terms of service, and just how much of a hub Chicago is: 16 Amtrak routes terminate there! It also shows the paucity of high-speed rail in America. Just one route – the Acela along the Northeast corridor – even somewhat approaches that definition.
One day, I’d like to rework this map with all the Amtrak Thruways (connecting bus and rail services) shown as well. One day…
View the map and read more about it on my personal website.
Leaving aside the politics and cost for a minute, this is actually a pretty darn nice map. Attractive and informational. Drawing the “Super Express” and “Express” routes as dead straight lines definitely emphasises the idea of speed and direct connections between points. Long Island looks a little weird, though…
Source: carfreemaine/Tumblr – link no longer active
Source: Jean (tarkastad)/Flickr
Budapest boasts the second oldest underground metro line in the world: its Line 1 (Yellow Line) dates from 1896 and was added the the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2002. Only the London Underground predates it. Wikipedia also claims (without attribution, unfortunately) that Budapest’s comprehensive tram service has the busiest “traditional city tram line” in the world where tram lines 4 and 6 combine, with the world’s longest passenger trams (54-metre long Siemens Combino units) running at 60 to 90 second intervals at peak time. Impressive stuff, but does the system map measure up? Yes and no.
Have we been there? No.
What we like: Comprehensive overview of services provided. The “interchange zone” boxes around complex modal interchanges work really well. Budapest’s Metro logo is a favourite of mine.
What we don’t like: Strangely muted and pastel-heavy colour palette reduces contrast between the multitude of lines. I feel like there’s a definite Paris Metro map vibe to this map, but the colour choices aren’t as appropriate.
Mode differentiation is poor – the Metro, suburban rail and passenger rail all use the same line weight for their route lines, as do trams and “selected bus routes”. Yet tram line 60, a cog-wheel tram (cool!), gets its own distinct route line style, with boxes for stations instead of dots. I feel this style could have been better used to differentiate between buses and trams.
Our rating: Comprehensive, but hard work to actually use. 2.5 stars.
Source: Official BKV website
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.
