Submission – Fantasy Map: Hay Ride Transit Map from “Miikshi the Meek Sheep”

March 29, 2019
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Submitted by Peter, who says:

I love the aesthetic of this YouTube (only, so far) show and love the acting and the puppets and … pretty much everything about it and seriously hope they get some sort of deal for production. I didn’t think I could love it any more until this map popped up on a behind the scenes clip. I mean, the models of the subway and farm bus were amazing but a map, too? Holy cow! So to speak. Maybe the production team have Transitmap.net in their RSS feed like I do?

Transit Maps says:

Holy cow indeed, Peter! Although the behind the scenes video only gives us this partial glimpse of Mibukiville’s Hay Ride Transit (HRT) map, it’s pretty obvious that its main source of inspiration is the 1960 “Hutchinson” London Tube Map (The square interchange markers and hard angles where the lines change direction are kind of dead giveaways when identifying this particular edition compared to other versions of the Tube Map). The cool “sunrise” HRT logo is a great touch, and some of the station names are suitably pun-tastic. My favourite would have to be “Pig-Stuy”, which is hilarious.

Yes, there’s some oddities, like the fact that some of the interchange stations don’t seem to have names attached to them, but seeing as this a background prop from a kids’ puppet show, I think we can let it slide. I actually think the attention to detail for such a minor set element is wonderful to see. Check out the video that Peter mentions below for a quick look at the map in-situ in the actual show, which looks kind of incredible.

Submission – Historical Map: Illinois Central Railroad Passenger Routes, 1952 by Carter Moore

March 28, 2019
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Submitted by Carter, who says:

I’ve always been fascinated with trains and tube-style maps, so I decided to make my own based on my home-town’s railroad. I found an old Official Guide which I used as my source for this map. I’d like to hear what your think of it.

Transit Maps says:

Carter says that this is his first map, and I think it’s absolutely amazing for a first effort. Even with an official route guide to help, the research and dedication needed to piece this together must have been immense! Design-wise, I really like the dead-straight trajectory that the main Chicago to New Orleans trunk line takes – a great focal point for the whole map. The stylised compression of the rest of the map works pretty well for the most part, although some of the states do take on some pretty odd shapes. An alternate solution might have been to simply point off the edge of the map towards Florida, but I do really appreciate the completeness of Carter’s approach.

Labelling is generally pretty good, although I’m never really in favour of bigger type for important stations. I feel it breaks up the flow of a map and causes more problems, spacing-wise, than it’s worth. Bolder text or even all-caps at the same point size as a regular station works better for me. The only truly problematic area for labelling is the Delta Express out of Memphis. Alternating station names on either side of a diagonal route line is very difficult to pull off effectively, and it’s quite difficult to work out which label belongs to which station.

Typographically, I’m not entirely sure that Century Gothic (a 1991 font attempting to emulate a 1970s font in Avant Garde) really evokes the right 1950s feel, but it is clear and legible. An American-style gothic like Franklin Gothic or News Gothic might work well, and perhaps tie in with the Illinois Central logo as well.

I love the completeness of the service icons at the stations – regular stop, flag stop, one-way stop, etc. – although this can be a lot of information for readers to take in at once. It’s important to make the icons as intuitive as possible, and in general, Carter’s done a good job. The last one, for a one-way flag stop, is perhaps a little too subtle in its execution to be told apart from a normal one-way stop quickly and easily. A little refinement and these should work!

Minor things: I’d move the legend away from the map and into the wide-open spaces in Arkansas, and I’d work on getting smooth curves out of stations along 45-degree routes instead of starting the angle directly from the station marker. The curves north of Clinton could be rotated 180 degrees and reused to the south of Gilman, for example.

Our rating: A labour of love, I feel, and a fantastic, ambitious effort for a first attempt at a transit map! Keep at it, Carter – revise and refine and this will be a great historical map.

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Submission – Future Map: Melbourne Rail and Tram Map, 2025 by Durfsurn

March 27, 2019
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Submitted by Durfsurn, who says:

Originally I was making a map similar to my previous style of Melbourne/ Australian transport maps, but as the increasing complexity of a multi-modal map made itself clear I decided to streamline the lines, trying to balance real life corridors with more sensible and understandable map design. First I was inspired from a recent trip to Japan (amazing PT systems with manic maps to go with!) and added Line Identifiers but soon realised they would be far too cramped to fit within my station denotations. Instead I had seen others use dots within stations so inspired by that I added hollow dots for trams and solid ones for trains. I also recently added peak hour train frequencies. One major issue was combining the scales of networks in a way that had to emphasise the inner suburbs where the tram lines reside, and the extent of the suburban train network. My solution for this was to indicate small distance gaps on further reaching train lines and of course the obligatory NOT TO SCALE note in the bottom right.

Transit Maps says:

This is certainly an interesting design experiment, and it does look very striking, although I feel it’s more useful as an overview of the (future) network than as a proper wayfinding tool. The absence of any train stations/tram stops apart from interchanges and termini sees to that. However, it does work quite well in the denser downtown grid where many major interchanges get named, and I do like the bold, simple, graphic style of the map.

A few of the adjacent rail lines have pretty low contrast – the blue and purple lines in particular just seem to bleed into each other. Similarly, the large number of cased tram lines running in parallel don’t read that well as individual route lines – it just seems very busy. An alternate, if safer, solution might be thinner lines for the tram routes, but with a thin white space between each of them.

At first glance, the bullets that contain train frequency information look almost exactly like the route designation bullets, which is bound to cause confusion. It’s useful information to have on an overview map like this, but it needs to be presented in a different shape or colour to instantly visually differentiate it. In a circle? White text against a dark background? Offset from the route line with “tph” for “trains per hour” appended? There are a lot of different solutions!

Our rating: A good graphic style: chunky and bright! Needs a little work to make the information contained within more readily digestible, but a good start on a different approach.

New Project: Field Notes Brand “Mile Marker” Map

March 26, 2019
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I’ve been sworn to absolute secrecy on this project since mid-January, so I’m very excited to finally share it. Early today, Field Notes (the purveyor of beautiful memo and note books) released their latest quarterly limited edition, “Mile Marker,” with cover designs celebrating the Interstate Highway system. Included with subscriptions – and available for separate purchase on the Field Notes website – is an old-school foldable highway map, designed by me in collaboration with the Field Notes team.

Although this “Mile Marker” map is inspired by my older “Highways of the USA” map, almost everything has been completely redrawn and re-evaluated – with thicker route line weights for the smaller print size, new labelling set in all-caps Futura Bold to match the Field Notes house style, and new icons for highway route number designations. This map shows all two-digit Interstate highways as well as the “major” U.S. Numbered Highways (those ending in “0” or “1”, as defined by AASHTO*) in thinner grey lines. This struck a good balance between simplicity and complexity while allowing the map to retain its distinctive bold graphic style.

As well as the folded map, there’s also a limited number of “suitable for framing” flat press-check prints available for purchase on the Field Notes site. A true limited edition – once these are gone, there are no more!

I have to say, one of the best parts of this project was finally getting to collaborate with Jim Coudal, who has always been an amazing supporter of my work. He was the very first person to draw attention to my original “Interstates as Subway Map” poster way back in 2009, and has kept an eye on my output ever since. He had a vision for this map that I knew I could achieve, and we both worked towards that goal – the project was an absolute blast to bring to life!

*Note: U.S. 2 is considered as a “major” route, as it is the northernmost east-west U.S. Highway (there is no Highway “0”).

Infographic: Passenger Volumes in Vancouver, BC by u/Mobius_Peverell

March 26, 2019
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Here’s an interesting little infographic (clearly based off the official Translink map) that’s making the rounds on Reddit/Twitter/etc. at the moment, showing average weekday ridership on rapid transit in Vancouver, British Columbia. Created by u/Mobius_Peverell on Reddit with “Excel, GIMP, and two afternoons” (in their own words), it’s quite a striking graphic. It definitely shows the dominance of the SkyTrain, and the Canada Line in particular. However, it’s important to note that the 99 B-Line, running from UBC to Commercial-Broadway, is in fact the busiest bus route in either Canada or the United States, with an average weekday ridership of over 56,000 passengers – it just looks small in comparison to the even busier SkyTrain lines.

If there’s one improvement I’d make to this graphic, it would be the inclusion of some ridership and/or boarding numbers on the map itself. Yes, there’s a scale at the top, but it’s not easy to transfer that down to the map itself with any accuracy. The dot sizing for each station’s boarding is particularly hard to calculate mentally. As it is, the graphic lets you compare general ridership trends, but not the actual numbers behind those trends.

Compare to this 1954 flow diagram of subway lines in Manhattan, where all the data is shown directly on the map.

Source: r/vancouver on Reddit

Historical Fantasy Map: Proposed 1974 Detroit Rapid Transit System by Jake Berman

March 25, 2019
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Jake Berman is one of those transit map design enthusiasts who are simply too prolific to note everything they do – suffice it to say that you should head over to his website and check out all the cool transit map things he makes.

However, I do have to share this map – recreating a failed attempt at a south-east Michigan rail-based rapid transit system – if only because I think that Jake has absolutely nailed the mid-1970s design aesthetic. Thick route lines with hard angles and unnecessary wobbles, all-caps station labels, all lower-case agency acronym… it’s got the lot! Nice work, Jake!

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Source: r/detroit on Reddit

New York Subway Map from “Miles Morales: SpiderMan” #4

March 24, 2019
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A rather adorable double page spread from this comic, showing our heroes racing to get back to their school before the vice-principal does – bike share versus taxi! The whole trip is superimposed on a “comics” version of the New York Subway Map, which is actually fairly faithful to the real thing in terms of placement of elements, though it’s been simplified a lot with the removal of the underlying street grid. A bold choice by this reality’s MTA to go with hexagons for station markers and service bullets! There’s also no visual differentiation between local and express stations here – Kings Highway on the B/Q would be a white dot in our world, for example.

Also amusing is that Prospect Park station is closed due to “superhero activity” – I wonder if our erstwhile webslinger had anything to do with that? Also, I think we can place the Brooklyn Visions campus somewhere around the intersection of Avenue U and Nostrand Avenue?

Art by Javier Garrón; Colours by David Curiel; Written by Saladin Ahmed.

Source: Saladin Ahmed/Twitter

Historical Map: Seattle Transit Coach Routes, 1970

March 23, 2019
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It’s the end of an era in Seattle, as buses will no longer serve the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, instead being routed along surface streets above the tunnel from today onwards. The tunnel will now exclusively be used for light rail services, which will increase with the opening of East Link in the future.

To commemorate this occasion, let’s have a look at an historical map showing a time when buses previously ran on the surface downtown.

It’s a pretty simple affair, with red and blue bus routes being surprinted on top of a standard Rand McNally map of Seattle… if you look closely, you can see that black road lines continue through the middle of the circular route number bullets. The dense downtown network (with buses running along every avenue from 1st to 5th!) is almost impossible to make out, but there’s a more detailed downtown map on the reverse. It shows through the the thin paper a bit, as well as what seems to be a very large notice about only exact change being accepted to the bottom right.

Of note is the extremely dense and regular grid of routes in Ballard, and the comparative lack of routes in South Seattle. Many routes end in a little loop, so I’m guessing that these are trolleybus routes that can’t just turn around on the spot to go back the other way.

The presence of the blue “Blue Streak” express bus routes allows us to date the map even more precisely than the 1970 copyright notice at the bottom of the map. These express services commenced on September 8, 1970 with Route 41, a route that still exists today in the current King County Metro network.

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Source: SounderBruce/Twitter

Submission – Tourists’ Trolleybus Map of Yalta, Crimea by Aleksandr Karavaev and Nikolay Bashkov

March 21, 2019
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Submitted by Pasha Omelekhin, who has had maps featured on the blog previously.

Transit Maps says:

Somewhat blurring the line between illustration and map, this diagram — created to provide visitors to the city with an overview of transit in the city and how it relates to points of interest — presents the trolleybus lines and the city as an oblique “birds-eye” view from the sea with the mountains rising behind. Printed versions of the map are die cut to the shape of the mountains and sea, which is a rather lovely and unexpected touch.

The attention to detail is quite staggering, with all of the little point of interest icons being drawn in proper perspective according to their location on the map. I’ve often bemoaned icons drawn from conflicting viewpoints on other maps, so this is rather wonderful to see. There’s also a sense of whimsy — the dockside crane on the waterfront is lifting up one of the letters in its label, for example.

The time that it takes the trolleybus to travel between key points is indicated on the map, as well as approximate walking times to points of interest (though the exact route to take is probably left to a more detailed map). Connections to normal bus services that can get to other points of interest are also shown.

If I had one complaint about this map, it’s that the graceful, sweeping route that the trolleybuses are shown as taking bears very little resemblance to the real world. In actuality, the route takes a hard 90-degree turn away from the coast at the stop where route 42 starts and runs along both sides of the canalised Bystra River (northbound on the west bank, southbound on the east bank). While not essential details to show, both the turn and the split route along the river could serve as very important mental wayfinding tools for people unfamiliar with Yalta’s geography — the very people the map is meant to assist. Earlier iterations of the map (see the short video below) showed both of these in various forms, so it’s interesting to see how the design moved away from a more literal interpretation to this more stylistic form.

Our rating: Looks absolutely gorgeous, full of wonderful details and information. However, I feel that the map’s heavily stylised form actually detracts somewhat from its stated mission of assisting tourists. Three stars.

Do check out the map’s project page, however, as it’s full of great information about the process behind the map (in Russian, but Google Translate does a decent job).

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Source: Nicolay Bashkov’s website

Submission – Official Map: Bus and Tram Map of Norrköping, Sweden, 2019

March 15, 2019
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Submitted by Kristofer, who says:

This is the new official map for the Östgötatrafiken network in Norrköping. Line 2 and 3 is tram, the rest is bus. I like the overall design of the map, but think it is very hard to read the stop names, because of the very thin font on dark background. Also it is a little strange to denote the lines as unidirectional in the legend (e.g., Line 2 From: Fridvalla To: Kvarnberget). And they misspelled the main stop Resecentrum (Transport hub, by the railway station) on the map.

Transit Maps says:

Overall, I’d have to agree with Kristofer’s summary of this map – the labelling (in what looks to be Helvetica Condensed Light) seems a little too small and spindly to be read easily, especially reversed out of the darker background. The misspelling of the network’s main hub station is pretty unforgivable as well (oops!).

I’m not thrilled with the delicate ticked lines for the tram routes, although they do differentiate them from the bus routes, I guess. Again, it just seems very spindly against the dark background – the red Line 2 in particular seems to get lost in the background.

I do think the dark labels for the localities work well, although the labels for Hageby and Rambodal could easily have been set horizontally instead of on an angle. For that matter, the southern terminus of line 119 at Trumpetaregaten could easily be horizontal as well. Being the only angled terminus label on the map really makes it stand out like a sore thumb.

And yes, labelling the routes in the form of “To” to “From” does seem to confuse things a bit. Hopefully, common sense kicks in and everyone realises that the routes go both ways along the line!

Our rating: Striking at first appearance, but much of the text could stand to be a bit larger and bolder. There’s a lot of empty space on the canvas, so some reworking could use that space more effectively. Two-and-a-half stars.

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Source: ÖstgötaTrafiken website