2016 “Transit Maps” Gift Guide – Posters

November 29, 2016
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Another awesome selection of prints and posters for your consideration this year. You can also look at last year’s selection of gift ideas using the “2015 Gift Guide” tag.

Mini Metros by Peter Dovak. A neat idea, executed very well indeed. See if your friends can identify all 220 systems! Available in “spectrum” and “monochrome” versions from $15 on Society6 (links no longer active).

Vanmaps by Andrew “Vanshnookenraggen” Lynch. A wide variety of colour-coded maps of individual lines from systems across the United States (the MBTA’s Red Line is shown). Prints from $25 at vanmaps.com

Typographical Map of Los Angeles by Axis Maps. Not a transit map, but an astounding piece of cartography that I can’t help but share. The work that’s gone into this beautiful piece is amazing. See also their range of other cities! $30 for a 24×36″ print at Axis Maps (link no longer active).

The New York City Subway Poster by Hamish Smyth. A gorgeous print of the names of all 469 New York Subway stations. Printed in 11 spot colours and licensed by the MTA. 24×33.25″ print for $49 at subwayposter.com (link no longer active).

Visit Toronto Today! by Paul Dotey. A whimsically illustrated look at Toronto (and its transit network) in a post-global warming world. Subway or submarine? 28×20″ print for $CAN65 at Paul’s bigcartel site (link no longer active).

Colors of the Rails by Nicholas Rougeux. An abstract look at the colours used by rapid transit system maps around the world: the bigger each box, the more stations there are on that line. Prints in a variety of sizes on Nick’s site.

New Zealand State Highways by Andrew Douglas-Clifford. A map very much in line with many of my own projects, but nicely done indeed. Prints for $NZ42.99 at Andrew’s site.

The Wrong Color Subway by Triboro Studios. Fabulously incorrect and loud prints of the New York Subway (with a design based on Triboro’s earlier One-Color Subway Map). There are versions based on both the RGB and CMYK colour models. 45×48″ prints for $180 at Triboro’s website.

Submission – Official Map: Schematic Transit Map for Utrecht (University area), The Netherlands by U-OV

November 22, 2016
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Submitted by Fabian Wegewijs, the Coordinator of Travel Information for U-OV, who says:

U-OV is the operator of public transport in Utrecht, the fourth largest city in the Netherlands. We operate a fleet of more than 300 buses and 26 trams, mostly on two radial networks. The main network goes to and from the main railway station, Utrecht Central. The second radial network goes to and from De Uithof University area. Our detailed network map for planning purposes was submitted to your website by Jug Cerovic a while ago (July 2016, 4 stars). For this map we’ve received numerous positive reactions from our customers.

Additionally we have developed a totally schematic map for promotion purposes. With this map we want to show commuters how easy it is to reach the University area with direct services from nearby residential areas and regional railway stations, so they can avoid the overcrowded bus services from Utrecht Central station. We also use this as promotional material to convince motorists to make use of public transportation.

We are eager to learn what you think of this map, as we are constantly looking for ways to improve our customer service experience. Your suggestions are highly appreciated and we hope to implement them in the next version of the map in December of this year.

Transit Maps says:

Ugggh, my submission queue is out of control, and this piece has unfortunately sat in it for way too long. It’s fantastic to get work directly from actual transit agencies, and hopefully there will be more in the future!

As for this piece, I think it largely succeeds in its goal of emphasising connections to the University while remaining simple, accessible and a little fun.

Interestingly, the diagram downgrades the high-frequency #12 and #28 buses (based off my reading of Jug’s full system map) through Utrecht Central to thin route lines. While this is in line with the stated mission of getting riders to find alternative routes to the University, it does muddle the message of the map a little. Preferred routes are shown on the diagram as thicker lines, with their frequencies shown in call-boxes. By inference, I think many readers would then assume that thinner lines equal a lower frequency service… which isn’t necessarily the case. For example, a rider coming from Vleuten Station might think that there’s only one #28 every hour, as the #29 has a thicker route line with just two buses per hour (which isn’t even particularly “frequent”).

Finally, a statement that the four buses an hour from Driebergen-Zeist is for the #71 combined with the limited-service #271 and #371 could be good, just to head off any potential confusion that there’s somehow 12 buses an hour along this section (four for each of the three services).

Overall, I do like this little diagram – it has a fun quirkiness to it that I really enjoy – and it’s great to see transit agencies trying new and interesting ways of informing people of their services. I do think that the thick versus thin route lines need a better explanation to prevent confusion over implied frequencies, but it’s not a deal-breaker for me, either.

Fantasy Map: Near-Future Boston Map (in Toronto) for “The Handmaid’s Tale”

November 17, 2016
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Yet another variant of the new Boston MBTA rapid transit map for televisual purposes, after this recent one from The Simpsons, and this bizarre repurposing from CSI: Cyber.

This one was spotted at Bay station in Toronto, and is for the upcoming Hulu original TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale”. Starring Elisabeth Moss and Joseph Fiennes, it’s based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel. Set in a frighteningly plausible dystopian near-future, the series is sure to be a barrel of laughs. Think Children of Men crossed with V for Vendetta… happy times!

The map itself takes the distinctively-shaped route lines of the current MBTA map and places them upon a ridiculously accurate geographical background – including just about every lake, river and creek in the greater Boston area. Edits to the routes themselves are minor: the commuter rail lines have been changed from purple to yellow, and the Silver Line is now black, and that’s about it. Oh, and no stations have labels. Numbers are used to denote both routes and the shaded Hunger Games-style districts on the map, which isn’t confusing at all. I will note that the green “2″ bullet matches the actual line designation and colour found at Bay station, possibly (hopefully) intentionally.

The giant subway icon, number and logo/shield (what I presume is the seal of the Republic of Gilead in the show) really look like they’re just filling in the leftover empty space, though the logo is quite nice.

Finally, I have no idea how they’re going to pass this station off as being in Boston (even a near-future one), when those tiles just scream Toronto!

Source: r/toronto on Reddit

Historical Map: 1941 London Underground Map by Hans “Zéró” Schleger

November 15, 2016
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Here’s something of an increasing rarity – a London Underground map that I haven’t seen before. 

It’s the 1941 edition of the Hans Schleger map, printed in brown and blue ink only due to wartime austerity measures. I’ve written about the first edition of this map previously (April 2014, 3 stars) which was notable for its use of a blue airbrushed effect to highlight the central part of the map. Its removal certainly improves the legibility of the map: an important consideration with the reduced colour palette! The other notable thing about the map is small blue triangles to denote the main line termini stations dotted around London – mostly just identified by the initials of the operating railway company unless the station name isn’t related to an Underground station, like at Fenchurch Street.

However, what’s really interesting is that this map – produced some three years after the initial Zéró version – shows that the London Transport Board persisted with this “experiment” in map design far longer than I ever thought, probably to H.C. Beck’s complete and utter mortification.

Source: David Rumsey Map Collection

Historical Map: Proposed Detroit Rapid Transit System, c. 1920

November 14, 2016
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A handsome aerial “birds-eye” rendering of a proposed elevated rapid transit system linking Detroit with Royal Oak, Birmingham, Pontiac and Rochester (as well as the Ford Motor Company plant and blast furnaces). The system was first proposed in 1915, with a working scale model presented to the Detroit city council (photo). 

But by 1922, the company was still searching for land on which to erect one mile of test track for their unusual proprietary track system, which had both upper and lower guide rails (diagram). As we now now, the system was never constructed, although streetcars ran in the Motor City until 1956.

Source: Detroitography

Historical Map: History of the London Underground’s Northern Line (to c. 1975)

November 10, 2016
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A map showing dates of openings (and closings) for stations and segments of track along the Northern Line. King William Street station was the short-lived northern terminus of the then-City & South London Railway (C&SLR) from 1890-1900.

Via: Transport for London Tumblr

Historical (Unofficial?) Map: Transit of Sofia, Bulgaria, 2009

November 9, 2016
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Well, this is a bit of a mess, isn’t it?

It looks like the map’s designers have attempted to represent the network isometrically, with the city’s grand avenues surrounding the historical central core. However, the whole thing’s just so darn busy that the attempted illusion just doesn’t work. Almost every part of the map is filled with something: labels, logos, clip art, photos of landmarks, even randomly-placed pictures of trams! I’m guessing that the map is unofficial, as there’s no reference to the actual website for the Metro, just two now-defunct .tc websites.

At its widest, the boulevard leading away from the city to the lower right has some seventeen routes running along it, which doesn’t make them easy to follow. The two-line Metro – parts of which were still under construction back in 2009 – is incredibly recessive and hard to follow, buried almost literally underneath much of the rest of the map.

Our rating: Messy, overcrowded with unimportant or poorly-implemented extra elements, almost impossible to use. Half a star.

Source: Original source unknown, found on Mappery.com

Submission – Fantasy Map: Future Southeast Asia Rail Map by James Clark

November 7, 2016
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Submitted by James, who says:

Hi Cam, love your site! I’ve been studying future railways of Southeast Asia, in particular the Kunming to Singapore line via Laos, which will begin construction in December. I’ve created a map of every proposed railway in Southeast Asia:

The details of all the proposed lines can be found on my Nomadic Notes website.

Transit Maps says:

This is obviously a labour of love from James, and it shows. Lots of great, in-depth research combined with local knowledge, and just a little bit of fantasy and wish-fulfilment as well. James notes that he’s included one particular line because he’d like to be able to get to the beach from Saigon on a pleasant weekend, for example.

The map itself is certainly interesting to look at, if just perhaps a little too reliant on the familiar trappings of the London Tube map (interchange markers, station ticks, terminal bars, etc.). James’ decision to retain the proper shapes of each country helps readers to relate the map to the real world, but it also makes the usable parts of the map rather small – there’s a lot of ocean in this part of the world! I think some expansion of the “mainland” area of the map to the top left at the expense of some of the empty expanses of water could have been achieved fairly easily and made the map a little less cramped overall.

On a map like this with a lot of routes, the number of colours used is an interesting decision to make. I feel that a smaller palette repeated across the map in different areas works better than trying to come up with 40 to 50 ever-so-slightly different colours. James has generally done a good job here, although there are a couple of places where very similar colours end up running next to each other: along the northern coast of Vietnam, for example.

As an Australian, I do have to protest at the use of the name “Indian Pacific” for one of the lines: we were there first, and by a considerable margin!

Source: Nomadic Notes – click through to read James’ comprehensive notes, really interesting stuff!

Submission – Unofficial Map: New York Subway and Bus “Bullet Map” by Anthony Denaro

November 7, 2016
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Submitted by Anthony, who says:

You reviewed my map of the Long Island Rail Road a few years ago. Your critiques and your blog have helped me in pushing forward on my current project, a unified Subway and Bus Map,

I’m calling it the Bullet Map, named after the nickname for the circle subway route indicators. I launched it a month ago with a Medium post explaining methodology.  What do you think of it?

Transit Maps says:

Anthony’s actually been keeping me appraised of this massive and complex project for a while now – long enough to know that all routes on the map were once shades of grey as shown in the third image above. While this gave a nice light background for station labels and the eponymous bullets to sit on, I felt that it made for a very monochrome map without any element really tying the whole piece together into a unified whole. 

So I’m glad that Anthony bit the bullet (pun fully intended) and added some much-needed visual “oomph” to the map by reinstating the proper colours for the subway lines (and the Select Bus Service). For me, the Subway is – and always will be – the transit heartbeat of the city, so it fully deserves its place at the top of the information hierarchy. It certainly differentiates the service types a lot better than greys just a few percentage points of black ink apart, and makes route tracing a lot easier! The scope of the map has also expanded a bit, as this new version shows transit west of the Hudson in the form of PATH and the Hudson-Bergen light rail line.

As far as layout goes, I think Anthony’s done a great job of showing the dense networks clearly while still retaining a sense of accuracy with the layout of the city. The map uses angles in increments of 22.5 degrees, which gives good flexibility in handling the different (and sometimes intersecting) street grids of the boroughs. The labelling is neat and consistently applied, as is the nomenclature, which is always a good indication of attention to detail in my eyes. 

Impressively, the map works equally well when one of the transit layers is removed – say, the regular buses, leaving just the SBS and Subway as “rapid” services. Indeed, as part of his Kickstarter campaign, Anthony is working on a smartphone app of the map which allows the user to do that just that with the map as well as scroll around and zoom in. There are also different print versions of the map: a smaller 24×26″ rapid transit map, and a large 36×48″ map of the whole unified bullet map, as well as a host of other rewards. Wisely, Anthony is also offering “borough maps” that show selected portions of the whole map for those parochial types. There’s only ten days left to go in the Kickstarter campaign, and funding hasn’t quite been reached yet, so I’d urge you to go and take a look if you’d like one of these maps in your hands.

Bullet Map Kickstarter Page

Submission – Shannon Cave “Transit Map” Mug by deathandthepenguin

November 5, 2016
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Submitted by the author, who says:

Not a transit map, but a cave map inspired by Harry Beck I made a few years ago.

Transit Maps says:

This is fun! This map wears its influence very much on its sleeve, with much of the Tube Map’s celebrated visual language lifted directly from the source, but this is still very nicely put together. The one obvious difference is the substitution of what looks like Avant Garde for Johnston Sans (note the unjoined capital “R” – a dead giveaway). 

From what I’ve read about the Shannon Cave, this seem to be a fairly accurate depiction of the system, complete with landmark names and the different routes of streams.