Submission – Official Map: New BART Extension to Antioch

April 30, 2018
comments 2
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Josh, who says:

Hey there! Curious about your thoughts on what looks like BART’s decision to not show its new eBART line as a separate line.

If you haven’t been following it – instead of extending BART from its northeast terminus at Pittsburg/Bay Point, it instead built a two-station extension built to standard railroad gauge (BART uses Indian gauge) and running light rail DMUs. There’s a separate transfer platform at Pittsburg/Bay Point where you change from the DMU to a standard BART train, and in theory the transfers should always be timed so that you can just walk across the platform to switch trains immediately upon arrival.

I expected this line to be shown on maps sort of like Boston does with the Ashmont-Mattapan line – same color as the regular line but an indication of a discontinuity – but instead it seems they’re just showing it as a part of the regular line. Curious on your thought on this! My immediate reaction was that it’s smoothing over a sort of hack that allowed them to extend the line for cheaper at the cost of less than fully integrated service, and would cause confusion for people who don’t know the full story and who board the yellow line expecting a one-seat ride to Antioch. On the other hand, I’m not sure if there’s any decision a rider would make based on this map that would be incorrect. Since displays at BART stations show final destinations when trains arrive, maybe someone won’t get on a Pittsburg/Bay Point train because they’ll be waiting for an Antioch-bound train that never comes?

Transit Maps says:

I’ve talked about this on Twitter a couple of times, but I’ll say it again: I don’t like it. 

My personal opinion is that if you make your customers physically get up, leave a train, cross a platform and board another train to continue their journey, then you need to show that on your map, even if only to help people with accessibility needs understand what they’re in for at Pittsburg/Bay Point. Note also that transfers there are only timed in the peak travel direction. Riders traveling the opposite way can be waiting up to eight minutes, according to BART’s FAQ.

Showing that discontinuity in the route could be as simple as butting two “terminus bars” up to each other at Pittsburg/Bay Point, as I’ve quickly mocked up in the right image above.

(Side note: why is the only map on the BART website a tiny 500×500 pixel PNG? That’s not even high enough resolution to work on my phone screen, let alone my Retina Display iMac!)

BART obviously has its reasons for deciding to show the trip as a seamless journey – I believe signage has also been altered to show Antioch as the “end of the line” – but I feel it’s a little bit disingenuous to do so. It’s not a “one seat ride” from Millbrae or SFO to Antioch, no matter how much they try to sell it as one. 

Submission – Official Map: Map of NJ Transit Bus Services in Hudson County

April 17, 2018
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Maxwell Robb, who says

I saw this map last year in Hoboken Station in NJ. I was rather shocked, I’ve never really seen a bus map quite like it. It appears that NJ Transit has made them for every county. I’m curious about your thoughts.

Transit Maps says:

I’ve seen these NJ Transit bus maps a few times over the years, and I’ve never really been impressed by them. For me, the colours have always seemed very muddy and strangely difficult to distinguish from each other. I wondered whether it was to aid colour-blind users, but a quick visit to the proofing mode in Photoshop shoots that down – the blue and purple end up looking extremely similar for such users. Finally, it dawned on me that the three colours – orange, purple and blue – are seemingly used simply because they’re in the agency’s logo… which isn’t necessarily a great criterion for selecting colour palettes for a map.

The actual mapping isn’t that great either: the different municipalities within the county are simplified to the most basic shapes, but the routes twist and tangle their way across the map in a very convoluted way. It’s just about okay in the less complex southern and western parts of the map, but the north and eastern parts of the map are an awful mess. That afore-mentioned low contrast between the route colours doesn’t help matters, either. Lots of tiny route numbers and callout boxes add to the chaos. There’s some rail services buried way at the bottom of all of this as well, but good luck working with those.

Our rating: There’s no doubt that NJ Transit is an unenviable position – their network basically covers the entire state, and finding an effective way of representing that in a cohesive and attractive manner across a number of county maps is a Herculean task. I do applaud them for trying something a little out of the box, but I just don’t think it really works as it stands. A rethink of the colour palette to provide contrast between adjacent route lines and even more simplification of the routes could help. 2 stars.

Submission – City of Nottingham Transport Maps, 1970s, Designed by Roy Manterfield

April 13, 2018
comments 3
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

Sent my way by Roy himself are these two marvellous diagrams of bus routes in Nottingham, England. The first is from April 1975 and shows the two free downtown circulator bus routes, which certainly seemed to take quite the torturous route through some narrow old streets.

The second map is from July 1979, and shows the entire bus network in diagrammatic form. The routes are colour-coded based on their direction from the city centre, not unlike this contemporaneous Portland, Oregon TriMet bus map, with white routes indicating cross-town “suburban” routes.

Of particular note is the striking black background, bright colours and bold sans serif typography – this is very much a product of its era, though it still looks pretty fresh even today. The approach to locality names on the full map is interesting: they’re very large, but are layered behind everything else, even if that means that some of the label is obscured by route lines. Despite this, they’re still mostly legible because of the large font size. A clever touch to make things work with limited space. Possibly the least successful part of the map is the treatment of the River Trent: its crinkly “wave” edges seem a little light in comparison with the other elements of the map, and the whole element just recedes a little too far into the background for me.

The main map is also notable for offering the most apologetically British explanation of “Not to Scale” that I’ve ever come across:

Not to Scale
To present the information on this map as clearly as possible, the bus routes have been drawn diagrammatically and the city centre has been considerably enlarged.

Wonderful. Four stars!

Submission – Unofficial Map: Brown University Shuttle Bus by Michael Kearney

April 9, 2018
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Michael, who says:

My university redid the branding of their shuttle service recently, officially called the BUS (Brown University Shuttle) but called just “the shuttle” by students. They color-coded the bus lines and put up new signs. The only thing the signs are missing, though, is a map. I took it upon myself to make one.

Because distances between stops are fairly short, having some streets and greens was important to help orient users. Another thing I struggled with was elegantly showing direction of travel. The arrow system looks fine, but I’m wondering if it’s clear enough.

One important thing to note is that the green and yellow lines only run during the day (for university employees/medical students to get between the main East Side campus and the Jewelry District site), and the purple and blue lines only run at night (for undergraduates to get around campus safely, quickly, and warmly). In fact, I think that the transport operator subcontractor may just switch the shuttles on the yellow/green lines to the blue/purple lines right at 7pm to avoid a trip back to the shuttle depot.

At a first glance of the map, it might seem like all the lines run simultaneously. I included the legend in an attempt to prevent this, but I’m not sure it’s enough. Do you know of a more intuitive, visual way to convey this information? Or is making two separate maps just the way to go?

Transit Maps says:

First off – nice work on this map, Michael! It’s very clean and simple, but with enough geographical detail to orient users, especially the campus greens. It does what it needs to do very efficiently. I think the arrows are fine, though you could experiment with a couple of alternatives to see if anything works that little bit better.

As for differentiating the daytime and nighttime routes, I think it would be weird to have two separate maps when they would only show two routes each. The colours do some of the work for you in that yellow and green are brighter, more “day-like” colours, while the purple and blue are colder, darker “night” shades. You could present the evening lines as dashed routes (or some other immediately obvious difference), but after some thought, I believe the simplest option is to just make your legend more explicitly obvious. A big heading that says “Daytime Routes, Monday to Friday, 7am–7pm” with the green and yellow routes underneath it, then another big heading that says “Evening Routes, Monday to Sunday, 7pm–late” with the information for the purple and blue lines following. Don’t make your readers search all four routes to find that information, present it up front. Hope this helps a bit!

Question: do you have a map of Los Angeles back from the late 1970s?

April 7, 2018
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Questions
Tags:

Q Hi, do you have a map of Los Angeles back from the late 70s? Am looking for any kind of transit map but haven’t found anything yet. Would be a huge help. Thanks in advance!

A The LA Metro Archives has some 1970s bus maps available (there was no rail service in the 1970s, though there are some early planning documents). Specifically answering your request, here’s the SCRTD bus map from January 1979. You can see the entire list of maps available in the digital archives here (and there are a LOT, from 1880–2016).

The World Cup of Transit Maps, 2018!

April 1, 2018
comment 1
Filed Under:
Miscellany
Tags:

Let’s have some fun!

Presented here are 32 cities from around the world (12 from the Americas, 12 from Europe and 8 from Asia), representing a wide range of rail-based rapid transit map design. They’re arranged into four groups of eight: the Red and Blue Lines contain cities from the Americas, while the Green and Orange Lines are comprised of European cities. The 8 Asian cities have been spread evenly across the four groups and seeded so that they can’t knock each other out before the quarter finals (if they make it that far!).

The mechanics are simple: it’s a straight knock-out tournament. Win your match and you’re through to the next round. Lose and you’re out. 

Starting on Wednesday, April 4th, I’ll post a Twitter poll on my @transitmap account for matches using the hashtag #wctransitmaps. Each poll will run for 24 hours, after which a winner will be declared. I plan on doing two matches per weekday, at least in the initial rounds, just to keep the tournament rolling along at a brisk pace. Starting times will be at 6am and noon Pacific Daylight Savings Time precisely for each match – hooray for scheduled tweets! See the schedule for the Round of 32 match-ups below and get ready to vote!

When voting, I ask you to consider the design of the current official transit map for each city as found on the agency’s website and make your judgment as to which of the two maps you consider best. Of course, how you define “best” is entirely up to you. There’s a complete list of links to the relevant maps at the bottom of this post. Remember that this event is just for fun, and is wholly unscientific. Also remember that the more people who participate, the more fun the tournament will be – so be sure to retweet and share each match poll as it comes out to maximize the visibility of the competition.

The graphic at the top of this post will be updated as each match ends, reflecting the progression and elimination of cities from the tournament. If you’re so inclined, you can download your own copy of the bracket to follow along, or you can try to predict the final result by filling in the bracket before the tournament starts. Share your brackets on Twitter with the hashtag #wctransitmaps for everyone to see. Boasting rights for perfect brackets!

Schedule for The Finals

MONDAY, APRIL 30
6am: Third Place Playoff: Boston vs. London – LONDON WINS!

TUESDAY, MAY 1
6am: The Inaugural Transit Maps World Cup Final
Moscow, Russia vs. Santiago, Chile – SANTIAGO WINS!


Schedule for Semi Finals

THURSDAY, APRIL 26
6am: 1st Semi Final – London vs. Moscow – MOSCOW ADVANCES

FRIDAY, APRIL 27
6am: 2nd Semi Final – Boston vs. Santiago – SANTIAGO ADVANCES


Schedule for Quarter Finals

FRIDAY, APRIL 20
6am: Green Line QF – London vs. Berlin – LONDON ADVANCES

MONDAY, APRIL 23
6am: Red Line QF – New York vs. Boston – BOSTON ADVANCES

TUESDAY, APRIL 24
6am: Orange Line QF – Moscow vs. Paris – MOSCOW ADVANCES

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25
6am: Blue Line QF – Seoul vs. Santiago – SANTIAGO ADVANCES


Schedule for Round of 16 Matches

MONDAY, APRIL 16
6am: Green Line Match 5 – London vs. Stockholm – LONDON ADVANCES
Noon: Red Line Match 5 – New York vs. Chicago – NEW YORK ADVANCES

TUESDAY, APRIL 17
6am: Orange Line Match 5 – Moscow vs. Vienna – MOSCOW ADVANCES
Noon: Blue Line Match 5 – São Paulo vs. Seoul – SEOUL ADVANCES

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18
6am: Green Line Match 6 – Berlin vs. Hong Kong – BERLIN ADVANCES
Noon: Red Line Match 6 – Beijing vs. Boston – BOSTON ADVANCES

THURSDAY, APRIL 19
6am: Orange Line Match 6 – Barcelona vs Paris – PARIS ADVANCES
Noon: Blue Line Match 6 – Vancouver vs Santiago – SANTIAGO ADVANCES

Schedule for Round of 32 Matches

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4
6am: Red Line Match 1 – New York vs Delhi – NEW YORK ADVANCES
Noon: Green Line Match 1 – London vs Istanbul – LONDON ADVANCES

THURSDAY, APRIL 5
6am: Blue Line Match 1 – Washington, DC vs São Paulo – SAO PAULO ADVANCES
Noon: Orange Line Match 1 – Moscow vs Milan – MOSCOW ADVANCES

FRIDAY, APRIL 6
6am: Red Line Match 2 – Beijing vs Toronto – BEIJING ADVANCES
Noon: Green Line Match 2 – Berlin vs Madrid – BERLIN ADVANCES

MONDAY, APRIL 9
6am: Blue Line Match 2 – Mexico City vs Vancouver – VANCOUVER ADVANCES
Noon: Orange Line Match 2 – Barcelona vs St. Petersburg – BARCELONA ADVANCES

TUESDAY, APRIL 10
6am: Red Line Match 3 – Chicago vs Los Angeles – CHICAGO ADVANCES
Noon: Green Line Match 3 – Stockholm vs Prague – STOCKHOLM ADVANCES

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11
6am: Blue Line Match 3 – Seoul vs Buenos Aires – SEOUL ADVANCES
Noon: Orange Line Match 3 – Tokyo vs Vienna – VIENNA ADVANCES 

THURSDAY, APRIL 12
6am: Red Line Match 4 – Montréal vs Boston – BOSTON ADVANCES
Noon: Green Line Match 4 – Hong Kong vs Budapest – HONG KONG ADVANCES

FRIDAY, APRIL 13
6am: Blue Line Match 4 – Singapore vs Santiago – SANTIAGO ADVANCES
Noon: Orange Line Match 4 – Paris vs Taipei – PARIS ADVANCES


List of Official Transit Maps for Each City (in alphabetical order):

Fantasy Map: MBTA Rapid Transit – Past, Present and Proposed by Amy Parker/Fore Design

March 27, 2018
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Fantasy Maps, Future Maps
Tags:

I’m quite taken by this interesting vision of Boston in an alternative future – one where the elevated rapid transit lines were never torn down, but instead upgraded to be part of a comprehensive and dense transit system. As well as these old lines (and the Watertown “A” branch of the Green line and the full length of the “E” branch!), Amy also adds in other proposed additions to the network like the Green Line Extension, the conversion of the Fairmont commuter rail line to rapid transit, the Circle Line and even the Seaport gondola from South Station to Marine Park (incorrectly spelled as “Millenium Line” in the legend).

There’s some nice design touches in the map: the even space between all the 45-degree lines running from SW to NE is very pleasing and sets up a nice internal grid for the whole map. The reflected “wing” pattern made by the loops at the end of the SL1 and SL2 lines – here promoted to full rail rapid transit – is likewise a great little visual hook and is executed very deftly.

There are a couple of problems in my eyes, though. The regular spacing over much of the map means that there’s a couple of places where things have to be spaced much further apart to make things fit: the northern half of the Red Line is the most obvious example, with huge gaps between Kendall, Central and Harvard before tighter spacing again up to Alewife. I also think the big gaps between labels on the Green Line branches as they change from a 45-degree angle to vertical need to be looked at and respaced. It is possible to get even spacing between labels when a line goes around a corner with a little thought and effort. I find that it often works best to get the labels looking right, rather than the “ticks”. The overall generous spacing between stations means that the labels are all perhaps a little small in the context of the while map.

Also, if the “Yawkey” on this map is meant to be connected to the current commuter rail station (and the light purple diamond indicating a rail connection seems to suggest that it is), then it’s in the wrong spot: It should be down between Kenmore and the Green Line “D” branch, which might require a little bit of reworking to make fit pleasingly.

Our rating: A solid effort with great visual appeal and some good research. Some uneven spacing here and there affects the overall balance, but not horrendously. Three-and-a-half stars.

Head over to Amy’s design site for more details on the project – there are also prints for sale.

Submission – Official Map: Casablanca Tram Map, Morocco

March 22, 2018
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Chris Bastian, who says:

Had a chance to visit Morocco last week; the Casablanca tram map has both a network map (operating and lines under construction) and a travel time map between key stations.

Transit Maps says:

It’s not really much to look at, and there’s some odd design choices as well. Whose choice for the first two lines in a network are orange and yellow? There’s definitely a little bit of Parisian influence to be seen in the round “T for Tram” logo and line number bullet, which is perhaps not surprising seeing as the RATP Group currently holds the contract for operation of the system.

The map struggles manfully with the need to label everything in French and Arabic (and the legend throws English into the mix as well), though there’s some weirdly angled type because of this. It all ends up looking a bit random and haphazard, unfortunately.

The travel time map, on the other hand, is actually quite nicely done. Neat and simple, it conveys information effectively with a minimum of fuss. Some of the labels are jammed in oddly because of the strange little shape the map has to fit into, but overall, I quite like this addition.

Our rating: The exceedingly average main map earns just 1 star, but the travel time map bumps the whole thing up to two.

Quick Redesign: Charlotte LYNX Blue Line Strip Map

March 17, 2018
comments 2
Filed Under:
My Transit Maps, Official Maps, Unofficial Maps
Tags:

Charlotte’s LYNX light rail opened an extension of its Blue Line today, and a few eagle-eyed correspondents were quick to alert me to the new in-car strip map, as seen in this tweet by Steve Harrison, a reporter covering the opening ceremonies. After some poking around, I also found the artwork for the map here, which gave me a clearer look at it. You can see this version of the map as the first image above.

In short, this is not a good map, especially when you consider its placement above the doors of the train. The labelling is absolutely tiny, and the station names are at a neck-cracking 80 degree angle from the horizontal. The icons and numbers for connecting bus services under each station are absolutely minuscule: there’s absolutely no way possible anyone’s going to be able to read them from three or four feet away on a moving train. The bus icons are also overly detailed – zooming right in on the artwork JPG allowed me to see that they have bicycles mounted on front racks as part of their design!

Then there’s the spacing of the stations. While I guess it’s meant to give an indication of real world distances between stops, it’s completely unnecessary for a strip map like this, which really has just one purpose: to tell the rider how many stops there are until their destination. To that end, the inclusion of Interstate highways is also largely unwarranted, especially I-77 and I-85, which don’t really interact with the light rail line at all.

So, as is my wont, I’ve done a lightning quick one hour redesign to show how it could be better, just by considering the map’s end use and applying some common-sense design principles. My version is the second image above. Note that I’ve retained the vertical LYNX Blue Line branding panel to the left of the map. I don’t particularly like it – way too much Serpentine Bold Oblique for me! – but it does allow a like-for-like comparison.

First off, labels are much bigger for readability at a distance, and station names are only angled at 45 degrees for easier reading. Stations are evenly spaced along the length of the line to make station counting a much simpler task, and the two different types of stations are denoted by very different icons so that they can be told apart quickly. The connecting bus information is now larger and more legible, and the bus icon is a much simpler, more readily identifiable shape. Uptown Charlotte – the part contained within the I-277 loop – is simply indicated with some light shading, which sets it apart as being important without being too overpowering.

Finally, the final northbound and southbound destinations have been called out more explicitly than on the original map, which vaguely points “To I-485″ when parts of that Interstate can be seen at both ends of the map (as it’s a loop around the city).

To be clear, there’s nothing particularly special about my reworking – it’s a very quick, workmanlike redesign – but that’s kind of the point. Some simple adherence to good design principles and an understanding of the environment that the map will be used in have resulted in something that I think is far more legible and useful.

I have other issues with the original map, like the fact that the Charlotte Transportation Center doesn’t have any of its bus or streetcar connections shown, but they’re outside the scope of this quick redesign. Thoughts and comments on this are welcome!

Fantasy Map: “One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor” by Christian Tate

March 16, 2018
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Fantasy Maps
Tags:

An illustration commissioned by Empire magazine to outline the movement of characters in the film adaptations of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth sagas. Certainly not the first transit map-styled representation of Middle-Earth I’ve seen, but definitely one of the most information-rich and attractive, even if the route lines don’t always completely gel with the isometric background. 

Also, Christian’s rendition of Smaug is nothing short of magnificent. 4 stars!

Check out a larger version of the map over on Christian’s website.