Found: London Underground Map Tile

June 24, 2016
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Look what I just found while going through some dusty old boxes! I picked this lovely Tube Map bathroom tile up at the London Transport Museum in 2004, and brought it with me when I moved to the U.S. – where it has unfortunately remained in its box ever since. 

As best I can tell, it was made by artist Tony Davis around 2001, and was part of a set of six tiles that covered most of Zone 1 on the map. Each tile is around 6 inches or 15 centimetres along each side and was fired using ten ceramic pigments. Apparently, the tiles are also installed somewhere at Victoria station – I’d be interested to know if they’re still there and love to see some in site pictures if anyone’s passing by.

It’s also interesting to note that the station labels are black, rather than their more traditional Piccadilly Blue, perhaps for technical reasons.

Now… where can I put this?

Future Fantasy Map: Consolidated Bay Area Rapid Transit, 2050 by Adam Susaneck

June 22, 2016
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Here at Transit Maps, we see quite a few unified Bay Area maps. It seems that that the fractured nature of all the different transit agencies in the area seems to frustrate quite a few people, which drives them to try and make something better. The latest is this effort by Adam Susaneck, showing what things could look like in 2050 or so in a perfect world. 

It’s impeccably researched – head on over to this Medium article by Adam where he explains all his inclusions – but the execution falls a little flat for me. Like most other maps that attempt to show the entire Bay Area, there’s a problem with showing both the dense light rail networks – the San Francisco Muni, VTA light rail, and a new light rail system in Oakland – and the sprawling BART and Caltrain networks on the same map. Some parts of the map become very dense and confusing, while there’s a lot of empty space in other parts. It’s a balancing act to get things looking good while still maintaining a sense of geographical placement, but I think this needs a little more finessing to find that balance.

Colouring each service individually works well for differentiating each “operating division” of this newly unified system, but can make it a bit awkward when similar routes split from each other. Adam’s employed a system of route-coded arrows that point in the relevant directions at intersections, which certainly does the job, but isn’t particularly attractive. Similarly, his decision to place route bullets inside major station symbols isn’t quite working. The differing sizes, shapes and colours of the route bullets make them a little awkward to work with in such a confined space. I’m also not an advocate for placing route bullets at an angle, as it makes them just a little harder to read… which isn’t something you want for arguably some of the most important information on the map.

In general, the labelling could use some work to clean up the placement and angles; a little more consistency here would definitely help! Overall, the labels seem very small to me, especially the subtitles underneath station names. Even if this map was blown up to be a 36″ x 36″ print, those subtitles would still be just 5.4pt – that’s like the fine print at the bottom of a used car ad! I’m also not sure why some labels are grouped within a box: it’s certainly not explained in the legend. Outer fare zones? And if you are going to group them, then the last name along the line – Cloverdale, Stockton, Gilroy – should be contained within the box as well. Currently, their station symbol is included, but not their name, which could lead to some confusion.

In short, I love the passion, research and work that’s gone into this – having all the potential expansions from all the different agencies compiled in one place is pretty awesome – but think that Adam could tweak the map a little more to really let his conceptual future be shown more effectively.

Source: Adam Susaneck/Medium

Historical Maps: Australian Interstate Passenger Rail Schematics, November 1983

June 21, 2016
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Here’s a couple of neat timetable/route diagrams for Interstate passenger rail services in Australia back in 1983. The first shows westbound services from Sydney, the other shows the corresponding return journeys.

Differing rail gauges and immense distances have always made interstate rail travel a difficult prospect in Australia, hence the paucity of services even 30-odd years ago (only three Sydney-Melbourne trains a day and just one daily Sydney-Brisbane service).

Source: Image 1 and Image 2 – Dave Murchie/Flickr

Submission – “Transit Map” Elevator Service Diagram, Tokyo, Japan

June 18, 2016
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Submitted by Adam, who says:

The “transit”-style elevator map of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. The tower consists of two sub-towers, with elevator “lines” ABC serving one tower, and DEFG serving the other. Apologies for the poor quality of the photo–I took this offhandedly without thinking of submitting it. 

Transit Maps says:

This is totally awesome, Adam! Elevators that only service certain ranges of floors in large office buildings aren’t that unusual, but I’ve never seen the arrangements laid out graphically like this before. Major “interchanges” are at the 1st through 4th floors, then the 10th, 17th and the 25th and 26th. There’s also neat little escalator icons showing connections between some of the lower floors.

I wonder what the note on the 31st floor that seems to reference floors 21 through 27 is about? Translation, anyone? (EDIT: It seems that this refers to meeting rooms on this floor, and not to other floors. Thanks, anonymous!)

Less professional are the little bits of white, black and yellow paper covering up outdated information on the sign… ugly!

Also, I’ve suddenly been overcome with the urge to play SimTower (anyone remember that?).

Submission: Unofficial Map – Routes of the Great Western Railway by Xsanda

June 17, 2016
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Submitted by the map’s creator, who says:

This is a route map of the GWR network. It’s my first time creating a transit map with Illustrator, so I’m open to any feedback!

Transit Maps says:

This is a pretty good first effort! In a way, this is a throwback to old railway maps, in that it shows where the trains travel, but not how they do so – individual routes aren’t indicated, so it’s impossible to tell from this map alone whether you can travel directly from one location to another. Still, that’s what the Internet is for, right?

I will say that the map gets noticeably more crowded the further west it goes, almost like Xsanda realised he was running out of space and had to cram things in. Notice how most station names are set horizontally near London, but have to be set at a 45-degree angle down in Devon and Cornwall. 

Some of the route lines could be simplified as well: the branch from Exeter to Barnstaple could be a straight line heading northwest, while the reversals of the line at Coombe Junction Halt and Bere Alston – while technically accurate – are unnecessary detail in a diagrammatic map like this. With a little work, the line between Newbury and Castle Cary could become a straight line as well.

I also think the enormous labels for major stations are overkill: I’d set them just slightly larger, or even just in a bolder version of the font to draw just enough attention to them. I think that this would help with the balance of the map as well.

In short: simplify, simplify some more and aim for a more even spacing of stations throughout the entire diagram. It’s tedious tweaking at this stage, but it’ll be worth it, I think.

Historical Map: Washington, DC Streetcar Trackage as of August 1958

June 16, 2016
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A handsome hand-drawn map of the entire D.C. Transit streetcar network from August 1958, less than four years before the system closed entirely. The map was drawn by Charles Wagner, who was an active member of the Washington, DC chapter of the Electric Railway Historical Society in the 1950s, an august body that still exists to this day.

Source: Discover DC History archive (link no longer active)

Video: New “Johnston100″ Typeface Family by Monotype

June 14, 2016
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For Johnston Sans’ 100th birthday, TfL has commissioned Monotype to redraw the typeface, bringing the design back closer to its original roots in many respects. Going forward, it will be this cut that will be used on all new TfL signage, maps and collateral.

The redraw also introduces two new weights – Thin and Hairline – that I remain unconvinced by. I suspect they’ve been added for online usage and advertising purposes, but they just don’t look very “Johnston-y” to me, just becoming yet another ultralight sans serif. The remaining idiosyncrasy of the diamond-shaped tittles (the technical term for the dots over the “i” and “j”) looks very heavy and unbalanced in these lighter weights.

Still, this introductory video is quite interesting as the designers explain their inspiration and thought processes behind this newest version of this venerable typeface. Here’s to another 100 years!

Source: Vimeo

Submission – Unofficial icon-only version of the Mexico City Metro Map by Abbendymion

June 14, 2016
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Submitted by the creator, who says:

I want to share with you my version of ‘icon-only’ Mexico City subway map. Well, technically not a ‘transit map’ and more like a graphical arrangement of icons in topologic order, I was inspired by an earlier post showing Richard Archambault’s work and then looked up for the early Lance Wyman diagrams from the late 60’s that arranged the icons in the same way. After more lines were built, I think the arrangement was never reproduced again though.

I made an horizontal and a vertical version of it. (I like horizontal the most). Both can be found here.

Transit Maps says:

Having wondered what an icon-only Mexico City Metro map would look like when I reviewed Richard’s map back in December, it’s certainly interesting to see a take on that concept. 

This actually still holds together quite well as a (very diagrammatic and topological) map, because the colours of the lines guide your eye along each route quite effectively. Less dense lines have to have their stations spaced out somewhat, and the concept is less effective there. I certainly wouldn’t want to use this to navigate my way around the city, but – as a graphical treatment of the network – this is quite lovely.

Submission – Rail from Schönefeld Airport to Central Berlin by Robert Aehnelt

June 13, 2016
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Submitted by Robert, who says:

6 Month ago the german railway (DB), section Berlin, ask me to make a map. They saw my works on Wikipedia and gave me the job to create a transit map which help visitors to find the right way form Schönefeld airport to Berlin city. Schönefeld (SXF) is the old East-Berlin airport, which should be closed when the new airport (BER) opens. But since we have a couple of little “problems” to finish this airport, they have to operate the old airport and station longer than expected. Therefore the “Schönfeld Flughafen” station looks dark, dirty and lost in orientation. So this map should help to find a fast way to the right trains and includes red and green markings on the floor leading to the ticket machines and platforms.

Unfortunately they decided to cancel this project, because of the costs. This means I made a lot of work for nothing. So I decided to use it for Wikipedia. But before I do this, I though I can ask a expert for his opinion 😉

Transit Maps says:

It always sucks when cool jobs fall through, Robert – I definitely sympathise with you there! And I think you’ve done a pretty good job as well: this map would definitely be a big help for people unfamiliar with Berlin’s transport network in getting to and from Schönefeld. I remember having to work out how to get to Schönefeld by myself back in 2004, and it wasn’t fun. I think I ended up taking the S9, if my memory serves me correctly.

The map is nicely simplified and does a good job at clearly showing and explaining the options. I like that the traditional octagonal shape of the ring lines around Berlin have been retained from the official S-Bahn/U-Bahn map: this provides a great sense of familiarity. The reminder to validate your ticket before use is especially helpful (a surprising number of tourists are unfamiliar with this system), as is the notation of estimated time needed to reach major stations.

It’s unfortunate that the traditional colours for the S-Bahn and regional (DB) rail are green and red, as this makes the map much harder to use for some colour-blind users. Robert has mitigated this somewhat by including route numbers along each line, but perhaps some thought could be put into darkening one of the two colours to differentiate them a little better for such users.

I do like the icons for points of interest within Berlin, although I think the silhouette of the Gedächtniskirche is a little indistinct compared to the Brandenburg Gate and the Fernsehturm, both of which are instantly recognisable. Given the simplicity of the rest of the map, I’m also not entirely enamoured of the little shadows behind the icons: it works fairly well for the Fernsehturm, but confuses the shapes of the other two icons.

Similarly, the interchange design underneath the Information “i” symbol seems a bit out of tune with the simplicity of the rest of the map: it’s a bit strident and overwrought for my liking.

Finally, I’m not sure why Tegel (TXL) airport has been indicated on the map if the map doesn’t show any way to get there. There aren’t any rail connections to TXL, so its inclusion seems a little pointless to me other than to say “hey, there’s another airport over here!”

Our rating: A solid introduction to connections to and from the Schönefeld airport that clearly lays out the rail transit options available. A little more work and this could be really excellent. Three stars.

Photo: Gautrain Strip Map, Gauteng, South Africa, 2010

June 10, 2016
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This has to win some kind of award for “least efficient use of space in a strip map ever”. Let’s see, we’ve got an enormous title, a big picture of the train (that we’re currently on), a giant legend and contact details, and a weird swooshy design feature just to fill up some empty space. 

Oh yeah, and a tiny little map that’s  just been repurposed from the main system map without any thought as to how riders will actually be able to read it on a train. Even better, the smallest type is in yellow, just to make it even harder to read. This is not a complex network: the map could have easily been completely redrawn to suit the dimensions of the strip!

Our rating: Pure laziness. Zero stars and an entry to the Hall of Shame.

Source: Henti Smith/Flickr – link no longer active