“Between Stations” by Nicholas Rougeux

September 24, 2017
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We’ve featured plenty of Nick’s work on Transit Maps before – he has an uncanny knack of taking something familiar and mundane and looking at it from a completely new perspective. 

His new project, “Between Stations” is no exception, as he literally pulls apart subway systems from around the world and rearranges them into attractive circular forms. No scaling or rotation of the line segments is performed, they’re just rearranged to fill the circle. What’s really interesting is that each circle is unique and different, much like a fingerprint. New York’s angled street grid is still obvious (above), London is still a tangled mess, and so on.

Nick has a whole page on the methodology behind the making of the maps – a curious mixture of automated data and manual work – and there are also posters for sale.

However, I could just stare all day at the animated GIFs that morph the subway systems into their fingerprints and back again. Mesmerising!

Historical Map: Subway-Surface Lines, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1978

September 22, 2017
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Here’s a great late-1970s diagram that I haven’t seen before of Philadelphia’s subway-surface trolley lines. From the looks of things, this might well have been a strip map within the trolley cars themselves.

The subway-surface lines are given full prominence here, with the rest of Philly’s rapid transit rail system represented by very thin route lines mainly confined to the right third of the map. The five trolley routes are treated very diagrammatically, each following a straight path across the length of the sheet. Cleverly, little breaks in each line indicate where the trolley runs along different streets towards its final destination. The 10 runs on 36th, Lancaster, Lansdowne and 63rd on its way out to Overbrook, for example. Angled lines indicate cross streets and the numbers/letters of connecting services, though I think that the type here is a little to small to be read easily – something that can be said for much of the diagram. I wouldn’t fancy trying to read those tiny numbers on a crowded trolley, that’s for sure!

Interestingly, the lines are shown as purple, rather than the familiar green of modern SEPTA maps. Here, green is used to show main line passenger and commuter rail services out of 30th Street, Penn Center and the Reading Terminal. Note that commuter rail services were still under ConRail at the time.

Our rating: A great example of late-1970s minimalist transit diagram design, though readability is a concern due to the small labels on the map. Three stars.

Source: Free Library of Philadelphia

Submission – Official Map: Boston MBTA Commuter Rail Zones Map

September 20, 2017
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Submitted by alr2659, who says:

I found this map of the MBTA commuter rail zones in the Central Square T station on the red line in Cambridge. Strangely, this station does not have any commuter rail service, so I’m not sure why this was there at all.

I guess I’ll start with the obvious part: those colors are pretty hideous, and the mud-brown color used for zone 1A does a really good job making it difficult to actually see the line in that zone (which is a shame, since almost all of the system’s complexity is within this zone. Second, despite the zone borders wavering all over the place, the spacing between stations is not consistent. This is most apparent on the Lowell line – Wedgemere to West Medford is more than twice the distance from Wedgemere to Winchester Center. On the subject of inconsistent spacing, the space between station dots and their labels is inconsistent (an example of this that jumps out particularly is Wellesley Square in zone 3 on the Worcester line).

Labels in zones 1A and 1 go every direction imaginable, and the stop between Morton Street and Fairmount in zone 1 on the Readville line isn’t doesn’t even have one (and that’s not all – it doesn’t even exist yet.) And Fairmount itself – Zone 1 or Zone 2? (It’s actually in zone 1A, but I think this map predates that change.) My favorite station on this map, though, is Foxboro, in zone 6. It mentions that it is serviced for special events only, but not where trains come from to get there (Both from South Station via the Franklin line and from Providence via the Providence line). 

The geography of the coastline is very detailed; unfortunately, it doesn’t really resemble the actual Massachusetts coast, and even the parts that are recognizable aren’t in the right spots relative to the stations (Cohasset should be east of that peninsula that sticks up north). The rivers in the immediate Boston area are very detailed, but rivers elsewhere are simply omitted.

Having moved past the glaring issues, there’s not a lot of information presented on this map. For example, it would be useful to know that Amtrak connections are available at some of these stations, or some indication of service, since Framingham gets 43 trains on weekdays while Plimptonville gets 2. This map has the same problem as the rapid transit map that it is unclear which trains stop at Readville.

Transit Maps says:

Despite not being available anywhere on their website, I’m pretty certain that this is an actual official MBTA map, though it does seem a little weird that it’s not branded as such anywhere.

I agree with much of what has been noted above – the rainbow zones are both ostentatious and ugly, in particular – though I do note that a very similar diagram that was discussed in a Reddit thread three years ago has a label for the future Blue Hill Avenue station and draws the connecting route lines to Foxboro… so who knows what happened in the intervening years to delete them?

I agree that more information about connections would be nice, but adding frequency information is well beyond the scope of a simplistic diagram like this. Really, its only purpose is to assist with fare zone calculation, and that’s it.

Our rating: Yet another example of a zone map being the ugly stepsister of the transit map world. One-and-a-half stars.

Historical Map: British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) “Transit Map” Newspaper Ad, 1947

September 20, 2017
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Submitted by Jack, who says:

This is an ad for British Overseas Airways Corporation in the old Australian newspaper The Bulletin, September 17, 1947. I found it while digitizing the paper at work!

Transit Maps says:

This is a glorious find, and one that @airlinemaps would certainly be very interested in. Compositionally, the diagram is very interesting, with a dead straight line linking Britain to the Antipodes (somewhat mitigating the fact that the line represents some three days of flying), and some sweeping, elegant curves representing other “branch” routes. The striking angled typography is spoiled a little by the labels for Hong Kong and Shanghai, which look for all the world like they’ve been added at a later date, shoved in wherever they could fit.

The short-range hopping required for international passenger flight back in 1947 is clearly illustrated by the number of cities called at on the way – there are 15 stops between Sydney and Britain! The other major point of interest is some of the old place names, many of which have been changed over the course of time: Rangoon/Yangon, Salisbury/Harare, Calcutta/Kolkata, etc.

New Project: The United States of Highway Shields

September 14, 2017
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Here’s a new “map” that I’ve designed – a cartogram of State Route or State Highway shields for each U.S. state, plus the District of Columbia. Each shield is numbered in the order that each state joined the Union, so Delaware is “1″, Pennsylvania is “2″ and so on… all the way up to D.C, which is cheekily represented with a “51?”, referencing the ongoing statehood debate there.

I originally put this together as a quick Twitter post, as I’d been discussing highway shields with a few other people. However, the overwhelmingly positive response to it convinced me to clean it up a little more and offer prints of it in my online store.

As this is a cartogram – where each state is given equal weighting and everything is arranged neatly in a grid – not everyone is going to agree with my placement of states. However, once you’ve placed your order for a print, you can get in touch with me and request your own placement. Just bear in mind that the states are arranged to fit into a 12 wide by 8 deep grid when making your request. Move Nevada underneath Utah! Move Wisconsin above Illinois to make room for the Great Lakes! It’s all up to you.

Head on over to the store to check out the print. 

Submission – New Official Map: TriMet System Map, Portland, Oregon, 2017

September 13, 2017
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Sent my way by Jonathan, a designer at TriMet, who has this to say:

We just launched a couple new and improved maps: TriMet System and City Center. This was a long overdue update that brings those maps in line with the Rail System map that we’ve had for a few years. A few highlights:

  • Bus lines, rail lines and streets have standardized angles, but still adhere (mostly) to geography
  • Colors and symbols are standardized across all maps
  • On the system map, service along the same streets is not combined into one line, which allows you to trace the routes easier, and also illustrates the breadth of service along corridors and destinations
  • Parks and rivers are generalized so their fussy details do not distract

You can find the updated maps here. 

Transit Maps says:

I’m going to concentrate on the overall system map on this review, though the new downtown/transit mall map is also worth a look if you want to head over to TriMet’s site to check it out.

TriMet’s previous geographical system map was pretty darn good – it differentiated the different frequencies of services well and was clear and easy to follow – so it’s interesting that a need was seen to update it. It does give all the maps a “house style”, and standardizing symbols, colours and typography across everything is very welcome. 

I’ve always been of the mind that Portland’s rigid street grid almost eliminates the need for a diagrammatic approach to a system map, but I think that this new look is quite effective and uses the available space a little better. The “each route gets a line” approach generally works quite well, except in the downtown area and around the OHSU Hospital, where the routes seem to form a dense, indecipherable vortex. The old system map covered up the downtown area with a dark “Portland City Center” box, and I almost think that approach could have been used here… there’s a lot going on in a very small space!

I like the change of the Frequent Service route bullets to green. It differentiates them from Standard Service routes better than the old dark blue, and it matches the little green Frequent Service flags at bus stops as well. Nice! I do think an opportunity has been missed to properly define the service levels in the map’s legend. What exactly constitutes “frequent” service? In Portland, it’s 15 minutes or better, but it’d be nice to state that explicitly.

Other nice touches: the way that the MAX lines are lifted up “above” the rest of the map with a black outline, and the way that this black line also encloses the grey transit center circles… it’s a device that works well to draw attention to important interchange points without being too overwhelming or distracting.

I’ll be interested to see how some of the smaller grey labels reproduce when these are printed to go in bus shelters and on the back of ticket machines at MAX stations.

Our rating: A stylish update to a map that was already very competent. Three-and-a-half stars.

Source: TriMet website

Advertisement: Alzheimer’s Association “Subway Map”

September 11, 2017
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Spotted this in Cambridge aboard the MBTA Red Line. As a frequent reader of your blog, I certainly appreciated it and I thought you might as well!

Transit Maps says:

I feel like there’s a good idea somewhere in this ad, but the execution is a little flat. Shouldn’t “finding help” get the route back on track? The two “warning sign” stations are fine, but using “In Transit” for both of the stations before that is a little lazy in my eyes (not to mention confusing for people using the system if this was a real subway line). The labels could also stand to be a bit bigger as well. 

Submission – Official Map: Südbadenbus Network Map, Germany

September 5, 2017
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Submitted by Michael, who says:

I came across this map of Südbadenbus (which is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn), that operates a vast network of regional buses in the state of Baden-Württemberg. It seems that the network is mainly centered around the towns of the region, so I really can’t fathom why all these local networks had to be put on one monstrous map.

Transit Maps says:

Well, this is pretty terrible. A vast expanse of squiggly red lines and tiny route numbers, with little to no indication where each route begins and ends. As is often the case with this type of map, it’s left up to the reader to find a route number and attempt to follow it across the diagram, hunting for the next instance and hoping that you’ve found it. The grey labels are almost impossible to read where they cross the grey country borders.

Integration of the regional rail lines is similarly useless, as the lines appear to bypass just about every city instead of stopping there. I’ve caught a train from Freiburg to Hinterzarten, so I know that trains stop there… but you wouldn’t know that from this diagram.

Our rating: Next to useless, and unattractive to boot. Straight to the Hall of Shame and ZERO stars.

Historical Map: Newcastle Inns “Metro Map” Ad, 1982

September 3, 2017
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This newspaper ad from 1982 predates all those trendy “coffee shops/restaurants/bars/etc. nearest every subway/metro/train station in [insert city]” graphics that are pretty much everywhere these days by some 35 years. Riffing off the the Tyne & Wear Metro Map of the day, the map shows all the Newcastle Inns’ pubs near stations with their star logo, while also featuring some truly dreadful advertising copy puns.

Source: SkyscraperCity forums

Submission – Unofficial Map: Isometric Rail Map of Nuremberg, Germany by Stevan Wurm

August 30, 2017
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Submitted by Stevan, who says:

I’d love to get an opinion from you about my concept for Nuremberg’s metro region transit map. I’m not huge fan of official Nuremberg-Fuerth map [which hasn’t changed substantially since I reviewed it back in May 2012 – Cam] so I decided to give a try and redesign the map. In past I’ve tried several times to create transit maps for few cities but this one is the first one I could complete. I’m sure I’m going to refine it in next few years. It’s based on Stuttgart’s isometric transit map display [October 2011, 5 stars] which I absolutely love.

Transit Maps says:

This is a pretty decent effort for Stevan’s first finished transit diagram! There’s a lot to like about the way he uses gentle curves to ease the green S-Bahn routes into the right position, rather than using abrupt angle changes to do it. It brings a little stylishness to the diagram, and shows that Stevan is not afraid of adding new elements to his work, instead of just slavishly copying the Stuttgart diagram.

That said, isometric diagrams are tricky things to work with, and adding curves to the corners makes them even trickier. As shown in the second picture above, a perfect circle becomes an oval when depicted using an isometric projection, with the quarters to the top and bottom being much longer than the side quarters. To my eye, it looks like Stevan has used normal circular arcs to join some of his sections instead of isometric ones – it’s most obvious on the two green S-Bahn lines toward the centre bottom of the map, which are much rounder than they should be. Part of the magic with these isometric diagrams is the illusion of a three-dimensional space, so anything which detracts from that illusion is to be avoided as much as possible.

A few other notes: the letters denoting the end of each route are way too small, and are difficult to read. I also don’t like the way that the end point for tram line 6 flips up at its southern end, as it implies that the tram heads that direction after leaving Docuzentrum, when that stop is actually the line’s terminus. Some of the station symbol lines on the western end of U1 partially cut across the adjacent S-Bahn line. In general, I think the labelling is too small and often too close to the route lines – something that could definitely be improved with a little effort and a slight respacing of the central part of the diagram.

Overall, this is a very promising first effort, and I look forward to seeing future revisions!