Submission – Chicago Table of ‘El’ements

September 21, 2015
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Submitted by long time contributor, Kara Fischer, who asks:

Clever idea? Or useless eye-candy?

Transit Maps says:

Definitely just eye-candy, and really only made because of the terrible ‘El’ements pun in the title. It’s certainly not useful in any meaningful way and doesn’t bear anything but a superficial resemblance to the actual periodic table of elements. 

Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table, by the way, is one of the most information-dense infographics ever, with both the rows and columns revealing important information about the elements in addition to the information contained within each cell. A new row (or period – hence the name of the table) is started when a new electron shell has its first electron. Columns (groups) are determined by the electron configuration of the atom; elements with the same number of electrons in a particular subshell fall into the same columns. It’s so good that it was used to predict the properties of elements before they were discovered or synthesised.

This, on the other hand, is a glorified list of stations arranged in a grid and coloured to make it look just enough like a periodic table. As the “elemental symbols” are always just the first letter of each station’s name, there’s a slew of repeated letters everywhere – unlike a periodic table where each symbol is an unique identifier for each element. 

Our rating: Not a map, not a meaningful table of information – just a visual to support a pretty terrible gag. It is nicely put together, though: just not my cup of tea.

Source: TransitTees.com

Official “Map”: Portland Streetcar Conceptual Diagram

September 18, 2015
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While I may be undecided about certain elements of the new official Portland Streetcar map, I do quite like this simple little diagram that can be found on their website. With a minimum of fuss, it shows the two new loop lines, the two bridges they cross over the Willamette River on and the four distinct neighbourhoods that they link together. Okay, so the NS Line looks a little vestigial, but let’s let the loop lines have the spotlight for a while!

Source: Portland Streetcar website – link no longer active

Official Map: Portland Streetcar, 2015

September 17, 2015
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Amidst all the hoopla surrounding the opening of the new MAX light rail Orange Line, it’s easy to forget that Portland’s streetcar is now also running over the new Tilikum Crossing bridge. They’ve taken this opportunity to rework their system map to bring it more in line with their new branding – check out the rather nice new logo at the top left of the map, which doesn’t look half bad on the streetcars themselves.

I say “rework”, because a comparison with the previous map shows that the underlying basemap is almost identical, although it’s been given pastel neighbourhood colours on the new version. The typography has also been updated to use Halis Rounded, in-keeping with the new brand. It’s a nice, slightly softened sans serif that gives off a vague Neutraface or Verlag vibe without being quite as idiosyncratic as either of those better-known typefaces.

The really interesting thing about this map is the decision to split the newly completed Eastside loop into two separate route lines, the clockwise magenta “A Loop” and the counter-clockwise teal “B Loop”. I guess that this makes some sort of operational sense – and it would be nice for tourists to get that immediate sense that they’re on the right streetcar to go to OMSI, for example – but it works a little strangely in the section between PSU and South Waterfront. 

In this section, all three of the streetcar routes come together. But while the route lines for the A and B Loops each indicate travel in a single direction, the lime green route line for the NS Line – which is the same thickness – indicates bi-directional travel. What this means is that this part of the map no longer really works to give a quick visual idea of service frequency. If there were two route lines that were both indicative of bi-directional travel, and you knew that they individually ran at 20-minute intervals, you could then surmise that there was a 10-minute headway when the two route lines ran next to each other. Now, it’s a little trickier, as there’s three route lines of equal thickness, but one of them means something different to the other two. In the end, this only affects a small part of the map and perhaps this oddity is offset by the benefits of clarity that separating the two loop routes out offers. I’d be interested to hear others’ thoughts on this: good or bad?

Our rating: Visually, an improvement on the previous iteration regardless of the route designations. Three stars.

Submission – Photo: Cross-section of Brussels Midi/Zuid Station Complex

September 17, 2015
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Submitted by Piotr Ingling, who says:

Not exactly a transit map but seeing your post with NY subway stations drawings recalled me this one. It’s a photo that I took in Dec 2004 – unfortunately it seems that the board has been removed long time ago during renovation works. I hope it is preserved somewhere.

There are two levels here for metro and trams (underground part of tram network is called pre-metro as it’s ready to be converted to a proper metro in the future). On both levels tram and metro go in opposite directions and can (dis)embark from both sides of carriages.

Transit Maps says:

What a great photo, Piotr! Even though you took the picture in 2004, I’d hazard a guess that the diagram actually dates from around 1993, when the pre-metro platforms were added to the station – the fact that the architectural and engineering firms are listed to the right would seem to support this theory. Then again, maybe it’s even from 1988 when the original Metro station opened!

Source: Piotr Ingling/Flickr

Official Map: Geographical “London Connections” Map by TfL

September 17, 2015
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Here’s a map that’s been doing the rounds over the last few days, and has now been sent my way by many, many readers (Thanks to all of you!). Compared to the familiar standard Tube map, It’s a more geographically accurate map of rail services in and around London (as of late 2014), and opinions on it seem to be quite divided. Some people think it’s more useful than the normal Tube map, some think it beautiful, while others think it’s a horrendous tangle of spaghetti.

It’s kind of all those things at once for me: it’s very cool to see how all these routes actually look in real life (spaghetti certainly springs to mind!), and the map is very well drawn with a nicely subdued supporting colour palette underneath the bright hues of all the rail lines. It’s especially interesting to see how the lines relate to the built-up urban areas, as shown in beige on the map. The map also makes far more sense of the tangle of Northern Line tracks between Euston and Camden Town than the Tube Map ever has – Mornington Crescent is finally in the right place! However, the curve of the westernmost branch of the Northern Line as it heads north is greatly exaggerated for clarity. The map is more geographically accurate, but not totally so!

However, if I just wanted to catch the Tube from Point A to Point B, I’d still greatly prefer the diagrammatic simplicity of the real Tube Map. The very fact that this map needs an enlarged inset for central London shows the main weakness of a geographical map like this for transit wayfinding. There’s simply too many stations in the middle of the map for them to be shown clearly and effectively. I’d argue that this map is even less useful than its nearest direct analogue, the New York subway map, as the area covered is just so vast. On the NY map, you can see how each stop relates to its immediate neighbourhood, but that’s much more difficult with this map’s scale.

Our rating: This map is fantastic for detailed examination, but for quickly navigating the network, give me a diagram every time! Looks great though, and I’ve definitely pored over its details for quite a while. Three-and-a-half stars.

Unofficial Maps: Axonometric Projections of NY Subay Stations by Candy Chan

September 17, 2015
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I’m really liking these fantastic axonometric projections of New York Subway station complexes by architect Candy Chan. 

This type of view isn’t anything revolutionary or new – see this fabulous diagram of London’s Piccadilly Circus tube station from 1929, for example – but these are all executed very deftly. The cleverly exaggerated vertical scale does a good job of preventing upper platforms and mezzanine levels from obscuring important detail below them, while the street level is indicated only by thin dashed lines and street names.

More station diagrams can be seen on Candy’s project website, and there are posters for sale as well!

(And yes, I adore the fact that the Columbus Circle diagram is contained within a circle.)

Source: projectsubwaynyc.com website, via CityLab (a good read!)

Submission – Historical Map: The Routes of Imperial Airways and of Associated Companies, 1936

September 15, 2015
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Submitted by Mattias Lq, who says:

I know how you don’t like many airway maps trying to be schematic, but this one is a rather successful combination of a simplified geographical map and a schematic inset showing frequencies throughout the year. Although it has some minor beauty flaws here and there, it is really a beautiful map, especially considering the five colours used to print the map! What do you say?

Transit Maps says:

Mattias, I think this is absolutely wonderful, and certainly something that the new airlinemaps Tumblr should see! 

Airline travel was still relatively new in 1936, with commercial fixed-wing services having commenced in 1914, just 22 years previously. Imperial Airways – the predecessor of BOAC and then British Airways – was only formed in 1924, but expanded rapidly throughout the British Commonwealth, as helpfully shown in the detailed pink sections of the map above. Most Imperial Airways planes were small, carrying 20 passengers or less, and still had to “hop” from destination to destination along their routes. Transatlantic services – hinted at on this map as “projected services” – were still not practicably feasible.

The main map of services is lovely enough, but the diagrammatic representation of service frequencies is quite fantastic. It takes the solid yellow route lines from the main map (the Imperial Airways and associated companies routes) and reinterprets them in schematic form. It uses a complex but visually distinct legend to denote both service frequency and operating company, making it very information-rich. As an added bonus, it even includes mileage from London for each destination. And I agree: the whole map looks great despite the limitations of early-20th century printing technology!

Our rating: A fantastic piece of ephemera from the early days of commercial aviation. Five stars!

Source: David Rumsey Collection

34th St-Hudson Yards Station Added to MTA’s “Weekender” Map

September 13, 2015
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Reader Chris Bastian notes that the 7 Line’s extension to 34th Street-Hudson Yards (that opened today!) has been added to MTA’s Vignelli-style “Weekender” map.

I’ll say that it looks pretty good, but Vignelli’s famous “one dot equals one stop” principle seems to have been broken at Times Sq/42nd and Grand Central/42nd, where one dot now seems to serve both the “S” and the “7″. Compare the “S” to the “L”, which has its own terminus dot at the 14th Av/8th Ave complex, while the “S” no longer does at either end.

Photo: Portland TriMet MAX Light Rail “Catch the Orange” Promotional Map

September 11, 2015
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Portland’s new Orange Line light rail opens tomorrow! 

And while I’m excited, I’ve long wondered why exactly it’s being called the Orange Line instead of just being an extension of the Yellow Line. I’ve heard mutterings that it allows operational flexibility – with some northbound Orange Line trains becoming Green Line trains if demand requires it – but that’s always seemed like pretty weak reasoning to me.

And this promotional map almost entirely abandons that idea anyway, boasting of a “one-seat ride between North Portland and Milwaukie”… as would be made much clearer to riders if it was just the Yellow Line from end to end in the first place. 

Instead, the brochure has to explain that trains change their route designation from Yellow to Orange after Interstate/Rose Quarter on southbound runs, and from Orange to Yellow after Lincoln/SW 3rd on northbound runs. How does that make transit easier to use and simpler to understand for users? It seems to me that an operational desire (potential interlining of routes) has trumped a passenger need (easy to understand routing information), and that’s not a good thing.

As I see it, the whole Orange Line brand really comes down more to marketing than anything else – it’s easier to sell a sexy “new” light rail line to the public and media than a boring old extension of an already-existing line.

Now to see what it looks like on a real system map – here it is on TriMet’s website.

Submission – Official Map: Transit of Geneva, Switzerland, 2015

September 11, 2015
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Submitted by Nicholas, who says:

Please take a look at the transit map of Geneva ! It’s beautiful. It includes streetcars and all buses.

Transit Maps says:

Okay, Nicholas, I will! 

I even know who designed this map: it’s a collaboration between designer Andrea Forgacs and architect Oscar Buson, and seems to be part of a suite of maps that include the urban core (this map), the greater suburban area, a night services map and fare zone map, all built using a common design language. I’ve included a couple of mock-up images from Andrea’s website to illustrate the other maps – the night map seems to have quite a lot in common with one that I’ve previously seen from Zurich.

The main map is indeed quite gorgeous, although it has one little quirk in that all modes – be they tram, trolleybus or bus – are all depicted in the same way: as a thick, coloured line for ligne principale routes, and as a thinner grey line for ligne secondaire routes (although I believe these are all buses). It’s an interesting “mode agnostic” approach that instead focusses on level of service, which is not a bad thing. Locals would have little problem with it, as they would know route numbers, although I can see it perhaps presenting some problems for visitors who are unfamiliar with the vagaries of Geneva’s route numbering system.

Although not explicitly mentioned in the legend, there is some internal logic to the colour-coding in that the suburban bus routes – which have letters as their route designation – are all pink or orange in colour.

Technically, the map’s really well drawn: everything’s nice and clear with a very consistently applied visual hierarchy. Nothing feels too crowded, which is a real achievement with a system map of this complexity. I especially appreciate the effort put into making the rivers and lake shoreline match the visual style of the route lines, something that’s often neglected or shoddily done.

Our rating: I’m still undecided whether or not I entirely approve of the “mode neutral” treatment of the services, but the execution of the map as a whole is top-notch! Four stars.

Source: TPG website