Historical Map: Croydon Tramlink, 2000

June 10, 2016
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All the talk lately is of Tramlink’s inclusion on the London Rail Services Tube Map, but here’s a look at an early map from shortly after the system opened as the Croydon Tramlink in May 2000.

Interestingly, Johnston Sans is only used for the Tramlink logo and the prominent Travelcard Zone information: Gill Sans has been employed throughout the rest of the map. Of course, Tramlink wasn’t really part of the London Transport family at this time (full acquisition by TfL would happen in 2008), so this use of a different – but somewhat related – typeface is expected.

The map itself is a bit of a mess, mainly because of labels. Interchange stations are denoted by HUGE type, which leads to some cramped and inefficient placement of those labels to avoid cutting into route lines – West Croydon’s label is a long way from its symbol, while East Croydon’s label clashes badly with other labels nearby. Lengthy captions are required to describe the connecting rail services, all of which need to name the franchise in addition to the destinations. Station ticks are of differing lengths, being much longer on the southeastern-most part of the green Route 3, while the interchange “dumbbells” are indistinct and pretty unconvincing. All this combines to make a map with a very chaotic feeling to it, like elements have just been thrown on the page.

Our rating: Does the job, but no more. Cluttered and disorganised. Disappointingly average for a map that’s promoting a (then) brand-new state-of-the-art service. Two stars.

Source: By Air, Land and Sea/Flickr

Historical Maps: Moscow Metro Book, 1978

June 8, 2016
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An amazing book describing the lines and stations of the Moscow Metro in detail, complete with lovely red and white system maps as well as layout diagrams of all the stations. It certainly makes me wish I could read Russian! Simply beautiful.

Unofficial Map: Paris Métro Map by Constantine Konovalov

June 7, 2016
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I first came across this project last November, and wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. An obvious work-in-progress with a lot of half-finished ideas and only part of the map visible in the preview image made things very hard to judge properly. 

Fast forward six months and the finished product has been unveiled at last. It’s definitely been worth the wait, as I think this is a very polished, well-considered map. The central conceit – that Métro lines 2 and 6 should form a perfect circle around Paris – is not a new one, but this is a particularly well implemented interpretation of that idea. 

The use of 30-degree angles instead of the standard 45 allows more versatility, but care has also been taken to minimise the number of directional changes along routes. Indeed, Constantine reckons that there are half as many “bends on the line” on this map as there are on the official RATP Métro map. It is this straightening out of routes that helps prevent the central part of the map – that contained within the idealised circle – from looking like so much spaghetti in a bowl. A lot of work has gone into creating harmony and space between all the many and varied route lines, and I find the overall effect very pleasing. The path of the Seine orients the reader nicely, as does the inclusion of the Canal St. Martin and some delightful line icons of major landmarks throughout the city.

Mode differentiation is good, with Métro, RER, Transilien and tram services all looking quite obviously different to each other. Interchange station symbols have been greatly simplified from the earlier draft, which helps them stand out much better now. Destinations reachable via a short walk are indicated with dotted lines: a very welcome touch! Finally, future expansions are also included as dotted route outlines, showing just how much thought has gone into this map… I do love a map that’s future-proofed!

If I have one tiny complaint, it’s the way that the outer edges have been compressed and distorted to allow the inner part of the map to work properly. In real life, if you stand on the Arc de Triomphe, the Place de la Concorde is in one direction, and the Grande Arche at La Défense is in the exact opposite direction. It’s one of Paris’ grand axes and almost as much a landmark in its own right as the buildings along it. The official map honours this axis, but Constantine’s map has to bend the path quite substantially to keep the even spacing of stations around the perfect 2/6 ring. It’s not a deal-breaker by any stretch, and I think that the change of background colour at the urban boundary almost acts as a signifier that the map is switching from simplified geography to pure diagram at that point.

I also think that the map could have relied a little less on the established look of the official map (despite the presence of their logo, this project is not endorsed or supported by the RATP). While the similar look creates an instant sense of familiarity, I do think that Constantine could have pushed the envelope a bit and created something with its own unique look and feel.

Our rating: The lure of making a perfect circle out of Métro lines 2 and 6 is almost too great to ignore, but there have been many failed and downright ugly attempts at it over the years. This is easily the best effort I’ve seen, if perhaps a little overly reliant on the design themes of the official map. Four stars!

Source: Metromap.fr – take a look at the incredible process video at the bottom of the page: you can almost see Constantine’s thought processes and ideas evolve along with the map. Well worth watching!

Official Map: A Line Opening Poster, Minneapolis by Kevin Cannon

June 2, 2016
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Via: kevincannonart:

Metro Transit asked me to create a map celebrating the new A Line. Posters will be available during the grand opening festivities on June 11.

Here’s a great poster by artist Kevin Cannon for the opening of Minneapolis’ curious new “BRT-lite” A Line bus service. While it will have 10 minute headways, branded buses (with WiFi, because god forbid we live two seconds of our life without fast Internet), and stops with nice station-like shelters and ticket machines for faster boarding, the buses will just run along the road in standard lanes shared with all other traffic. This means that most of the “rapidity” promised comes from faster dual-door boarding at stops (which are spaced further apart than standard bus stops), rather than any actual speed increases along the route (if there’s traffic, the bus is still stuck in it).

Still, the poster is quite lovely, full of landmarks, transit connections and happy people. And I do love the note that the obviously illustrated map is not to scale. Cheeky!

Submission – Official Future Map: RTA of Southeast Michigan Regional Master Transit Plan

June 1, 2016
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Submitted by Mike Moran, who says:

Southeast Michigan’s local/regional transit plan, an ambitious 20-year, $4.6B plan to provide actual transit options to the greater Detroit area. Heavy reliance on BRT, plus a new regional rail line. One thing to note is the Woodward streetcar (nearing completion) is barely a blip at this scale.

As a side note, I’m currently in Portland for a conference (my first time here) and I love the transit system! I am extremely jealous of the system, and it has made navigating the city extremely easy for some of the more scattered events (and to get to all of the breweries).

Transit Maps says:

All the breweries, Mike? I’ve lived here for over nine years and I’ve still got so many more to explore!

But onto the map! I saw this myself this morning and was going to post about it anyway, but Mike kindly filled in the details behind the plan so that I didn’t have to. Thanks, Mike!

I love this map – it’s clean, simple, easy to understand and – most importantly – aspirational: qualities that are needed to encourage the citizens of greater Detroit to embrace the underlying transit plan. Make no mistake, it will be an uphill battle to convince enough people in this very auto-centric part of the world to vote for the additional sales tax that will provide a majority of the funding for this plan, but a map like this helps a lot. Benefits of the proposed network are outlined at every opportunity, concepts like BRT and cross-county bus services are explained clearly and concisely. A lovely minimalistic yet bold colour palette gives dynamic punch to the map, with each mode clearly visually differentiated from the others.

If I have any quibbles with the map, they’re very minor: the hard acute angles of the teal bus lines as they come into the airport seem a little at odds with the rest of the map, and the Canadian coastline perhaps seems a little lazy and indistinct compared to the Michigan side.

Our rating: Everything comes together to form a coherent, cogent argument for the plan, best summed up by the phrase “rapid, reliable, regional”. Four-and-a-half stars!

See also: this fantasy commuter rail map for southeast Michigan (May 2012, 5 stars)

Source: RTA of Southeast Michigan website

Submission – Official Map: Las Colinas APT System, Irving, Texas

May 31, 2016
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Submitted by Louis Alvarez, who says:

I thought you might enjoy this recent artifact of one of the weirdest transit systems in the US: the four-station, two line people mover that serves the Las Colinas suburban development near Dallas. (For me, the most eccentric thing about the system is that despite what one might expect, the cars are manned by human drivers who come to pick you up on request.) The map is such a festival of poor design decisions that it’s almost beside the point to offer a critique, but I appreciate the fact that the management felt it would be worthwhile to print these up on glossy stock for potential visitors.

Transit Maps says:

I think you’re being a little hard on the cartography here, Louis: the map itself isn’t that bad, although the “aged paper” effect is somewhat heavy-handed and the use of drop shadows/glow effects is a little… enthusiastic. The APT routes themselves are clearly shown and labelled, as is the new-ish connection to the DART Orange Line, so the map is doing everything it needs to, really. 

The huge type obscuring the top part of the map and the odd cartouche enclosing the service information to the left are pretty awful, however. Also, those are the three best photos that could be found to depict the system? The bottom one looks like it dates from the 1980s and could have definitely benefitted from some colour correction work.

As Louis mentions, the system certainly is eccentric. Construction began in 1979, but the system – already seen by some as a white elephant – didn’t begin passenger service until 1989: a full decade later. Rising costs and lack of ridership closed the system completely in 1993. When it reopened in 1996, the service only served the local office building tenants and operated exclusively at lunch-time on weekdays: basically ferrying office workers to and from the restaurants near the Bell Tower station. As Louis says, a fault in the automatic driving system means that the cars are operated on-demand by human pilots, using what are meant to be backup manual controls on a permanent basis.

The opening of the connection to the DART Orange Line has seen a surge in ridership and a revival of the system’s fortunes – there’s even talk of expanding the APT by completing half-built guideways and adding fill-in stations. However, it’s still somewhat of an oddity: a small, over-engineered, half-completed relic of the late 1970s. Read more about the system here.

Our rating: The map itself does the job, although it’s overlaid with some pretty average graphic design work. Two stars. 

Reader Question: Have You Seen the Interview with the Designer of the London Underground Map?

May 27, 2016
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Question: Have you seen the interview Londonist did with the designer of the new London Underground map? Really fascinating!

Answer: I sure have! If anyone hasn’t seen it yet, then head over to the Londonist website and watch the interview here. 

Personally, I wish it was more in-depth and technical, but that’s because I’m a total and utter transit map-making nerd who loves that kind of stuff. The interview does make a couple of very interesting points, though…

First, the straight-up admission that the map is not as aesthetically pleasing as it once was. This is rightly attributed to the extra information that the map has to convey that the “classic” maps never had to deal with – fare zones, accessibility icons, Overground, DLR, and now Tramlink! – although I still feel that things could be handled a little better, even within the now-obvious limitations of the “Beck style”.

Secondly, the need to listen to and appease multiple stakeholders, all of whom have a say in the final map. This is something that us amateur transit map designers simply don’t have to deal with: we make something that we like and call it done. I took the fare zones off my own Tube Map redesign because I wanted to see what the modern map could look like without them, but it’s a mandated element for the official map and it’s the designer’s job to make that requirement look as practical and easy-to-use as possible.

Finally… would that be my dream job? Almost certainly, even with all the pressure of carrying on the legacy of the most famous transit map in the world.

Bus Map Client From Hell

May 27, 2016
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Via: clientsfromhell:

I designed a bus route map with specific routes highlighted in various colours.

Client: Hmm, how about we make the route with the pink line more wiggly?

Me: I guess, but it represents a route with fixed stops. The roads are fairly straight.

Client: The road is straight, sure, but I want the route to be more wiggly. Thanks.

I have no words. Isn’t the whole idea to make the route look as direct and convenient as possible?

Submission – Updated Official Map: St. Louis MetroLink Map, 2016

May 20, 2016
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Submitted by Bruce Englehardt, who says:

It’s been a while since your last review of the St. Louis MetroLink map (Dec. 2011, a generous 3 stars), and it has since been updated. Of note is the new Gateway Arch symbol and redundant labels. The labeling for stations seems more consistent overall and they’ve retained the parking labels (though now with colors that could be confused with connecting lines/services).

Transit Maps says:

Judging by the PDF’s metadata, this map is actually from 2014, so I’ve been a little slow in getting around to it! This is generally much better than the previous map, with the labelling being the biggest improvement. I also like the cream/beige background – it  makes the map a little less sterile – and the Gateway Arch information is very welcome. I don’t even mind the duplication of information: it’s aimed at tourists, who can sometimes need all the help they can get in an unfamiliar city.

The weird placement of the Metro logo – not really locking up to any other element – makes me think that the background has been extended to add the heading and make the map taller for this on-line PDF. I suspect that the strip maps on trains would be cropped where the Mississippi River cuts off at the top and bottom – can anyone confirm this for me?

My biggest gripe with the map are the coloured circles for parking. Like Bruce says, most systems use disks like this to indicate interchanges with other lines, so there’s the potential for confusion there. 

Secondly, it forces you to look at the legend to have any idea what the dots mean… the icons have no contextual clues at all. If I was doing this map, I’d use a universally-recognised “P” icon for parking, “P+” for extended parking, and a “$” or “P$” for paid parking. There is plenty of room on this map for slightly bigger – but still very simple – icons. 

Finally, if a map user has protanopia – a type of color-blindness – the icons for free long-term parking and paid parking look almost identical, which could be a bit of a problem. For this reason, I always make “shape-only” icons like these use different simple shapes – circle, square, triangle – in addition to colour to prevent any possible confusion.

Our rating: Much improved graphically, but those parking icons are really poor. Still three stars, because I was way too generous last time around.

Source: Official St. Louis Metro website