Submitted by Mike Syyap, who says:
The TTC recently had a board meeting, and they revealed what the the future map from 2021 would look like. They still haven’t decided on the what the name will be for an existing station (Eglinton West) which will be a big interchange. Between the the road name choice (Allen) and the neighbourhood choice (Cedarvale), I prefer the road name since a big majority of the name are already named after streets, and I’d like to say that most people in Toronto don’t exactly have an affiliation for neighbourhood names (unless they’re downtown). Map-wise, I’m conflicted at the portrayal of Line 5 as it is an LRT, half underground and half street-level. I know typical line design use different weighting or styles, but I suppose they’re doing this for consistency. What are your thoughts?
Transit Maps says:
I feel that the TTC is trying to present the system as a unified whole, despite any mode difference (LRT versus subway versus “RT” on the Scarborough Line). Hence the numbering scheme to tie all the lines together and the visual presentation of all lines being “equal”. Much the same is done in Los Angeles, where heavy rail subway and LRT are presented equally on the map under the “Metro Rail” brand. Perhaps “rapid transit” might be a better descriptor for the map, but “Subway” has historical precedence in Toronto, so it stays. Heck, the New York Subway isn’t entirely underground, nor is the London Underground, so I think we can cut the TTC a little slack here.
The map itself, though, is starting to run into problems. It’s always been heavily vertically compressed so that it can fit above the doors inside train cars, but the extension of the 1 – Yonge – University line out to Vaughan is really pushing it in terms of fitting things into the map. There’s an enormous gap between stations on the new horizontal part, and then five stations are crammed in at the end of the line. The diagonal part of the line through York University is at a very shallow angle as well, which makes things look even more cramped for room.
Some little inconsistencies in design as well: the restroom icon for Kennedy is between the label and the line numbers, but it’s underneath the name at Don Mills and other terminus stations. An indication in the legend for this icon would also be welcome.
I see that there’s no indication on the map of where you can transfer to GO Transit commuter rail. Torontonians, is that a problem or does no-one actually do that in real life? I personally like maps which encourage cross-agency multi-modal travel, but wonder if local usage of the system makes this a non-issue.
Our rating: The map seems to be an early prototype produced for the report it’s contained in, so I’ll cut it some slack, but it is revealing some severe limitations in the map’s current format. Two-and-a-half stars.
