Submission – Unofficial Map: Guangzhou Metro Map from Wikipedia

August 25, 2015
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Submitted by Nate, who says:

In response to the Guangzhou Metro map (August 2015, 3 stars), I found this one on Wikipedia (by H2NCH2COOH), which pretty much addresses all the problems you outlined on the previous map submitted by ‘Tony’.

Transit Maps says:

It does, indeed! The addition of the rivers and islands of the city add some nice geographical clues to the map, and the APM inset looks much neater in its own little box. As a whole, the diagram is a little less elegant than the official one, with the red Line 5 weaving a little unsteadily across the map and an odd little kink towards the eastern end of Line 8 that could have been avoided with a little effort. The interchange icons are unfortunately very sadly dull and generic..

Our rating: A little bit better, a little bit worse than the real thing. Let’s call it a draw. My dream map for Guangzhou would probably combine some elements from both of these maps. Three stars.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Submission – Official Map: Manchester Metrolink, England, 2015

August 19, 2015
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Submitted by A. Potts, who says:

Hi! This is the official map of the Manchester Metrolink, a tramway/light rail system in Northern England. I just thought I’d submit it to you for your opinion on it. This isn’t mine, obviously, but I haven’t been able to find who made it. If that’s something you also know, I’d love to know.

Transit Maps says:

Tracking down who produces official transit maps can be quite tricky. Even if they’re actually made by an external company, they’re often just released under the auspices of the transit agency that commissioned them, with little or no reference to the design/cartography firm anywhere on the map itself. Some design firms have a recognisable “house style” that makes their work a little easier to identify even without a credit line – CHK America here in the US, Netzplan in Australia and Best Impressions in the UK are good examples of this.

That said, I’m not sure who made this particular map, but I sure do like it! Manchester has had this style of map for a while now (see this from 2014), although this version is something of a temporary stop-gap map while the central Market Street station is rebuilt. As a result, the system – which normally has through-running services across the city centre – has been split into two separate parts, with shuttle buses filling in the gap.

What I really like about this map is that it’s very much its own master – it looks unique to Manchester, with very few design nods back towards the almost ubiquitous London Underground tube map (which must always be hanging over designer’s heads in the UK!). The station markers are fantastic – always pointing towards the station name – and the way that they fit modularly into the extra information icons is great. The park-and-ride icons even indicate how many spaces are available for parking, which is awesome information to include.

The narrow shape of the map is interesting, as it definitely compresses the north-south dimensions of the real world system quite a bit. I’m guessing that this is to fit the map into available space in stations or on trains, but can’t be sure. Older versions have definitely been squarer than this, so the change is intriguing.

One thing I do miss from previous versions is the completely circular city centre shading: the rounded polygon used here just looks a little clumsy and awkward in comparison. Hopefully, its inclusion is as temporary as Market Street’s closure is!

Our rating: Another great diagrammatic map with a very distinctive style. Four stars.

Source: Manchester Metrolink website

Submission – Official Map: Guangzhou Metro, Guangdong, China, 2015

August 19, 2015
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Submitted by Tony, who says:

I love this official transit map on Guangzhou metro, it’s simple and clean and has just enough detail to not confuse you. Only thing I hate is the interchange station symbol it looks big and bulky when compared to the rest of the map. Your thoughts?

Transit Maps says:

Yes, this is certainly a fine example of a clean, simple diagrammatic transit map. There’s nothing else at all to draw your attention away from the routes, which is quite possibly a good thing with such a dense network as this. 

While I do prefer rapid transit maps that have at least some indication of geography – even if it’s as simple as the Tube Map’s inclusion of the Thames to divide London into north and south – I think this particular map shows that you don’t always have to give “above ground” cues to be successful. Those short two- and three-character Chinese names certainly help with the map’s spacious feel – although it does mean that the English-language subtitles underneath each station label are set in comparatively small type.

Unlike Tony, I don’t mind the interchange icons. The double-headed circular arrows visually convey the idea of transferring between lines quite nicely, although I do doubt the device would work if a station ever became an interchange between three or more different lines.

My one minor quibble is that I think the inset that shows the Automated People Mover (APM) in more detail to the top right of the map could be boxed in to make it more obvious that it is actually an inset, not a strange unconnected piece of Metro off in the far distant suburbs!

Our rating: Simple and uncomplicated; a fine example of the Chinese style of Metro map. Three stars.

Source: Official Guangzhou Metro website

Fantasy Map: San Francisco Muni Metro in the Style of the New York Subway Map

August 5, 2015
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Created by DeviantArt member Maphead354, this is pretty spot-on, right down to the MTA-styled “MUNI” logo and condensed serif font for park names. Of course, the letter designations for lines at every single station starts to look a bit silly with so few lines, but that’s part of the fun of the mash-up, I guess.

Amusingly, just like in New York, other rail systems get relegated to thin blue ticked route lines. In NY, it’s PATH and the LIRR – here, it’s BART and Caltrain. And the heritage streetcars/cable cars miss out all together, boo!

Still, a lot of fun and nicely executed as well.

Source: DeviantArt – link no longer active

Future Maps: Strip Maps for Los Angeles Metro Rail in 2024, by Steve Boland

August 5, 2015
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Nice work here from Steve, adapting the current Metro strip maps into their future forms – with consistent letter designations for all the lines (starting to roll out now, I believe), the new Pink “L” Line designation for the proposed northern branch of the current Green Line to Aviation/96th, the new configurations of the current Blue and Gold Lines once the Regional Connector opens in 2020, and the first phase Purple “C” Line extension to Wilshire/La Cienega (2023).

See other maps from Steve that we’ve previously featured on Transit Maps.

Source: Los Angeles Future Rail – calurbanist.com (link no longer active)

Unofficial Map: Bologna SFM Map from Wikipedia

August 5, 2015
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Following on from yesterday’s post, here’s the better unofficial map of Bologna’s under-construction SFM rail network, created by user “Friedrichstrasse” on the Wikimedia Commons. 

Unlike the official map, this one has firmly decided to be a diagram, and the clarity is greatly increased because of it. However, it also shows less information than the official one – no indication of bus interchanges or longer-distance regional or high-speed trains here – so it’s not a like-for-like comparison between the two. Vignola still seems further from Bologna than Modena, purely because of the greater number of stations on that line. Lengthening Modena’s route line to the left (so that Modena’s label lines up with the left-most text below it) would go a long way towards fixing this anomaly, I think.

Our rating: Simple, clean, friendly and usable. Not bad at all. Three stars.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Submission – Official Map: Servizio Ferroviario Metropolitano, Bologna, Italy, 2015

August 5, 2015
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Submitted by Kevin McElroy, who says:

I was recently reading the Wikipedia article about the Servizio Ferroviario Metropolitano (Metropolitan Railway Service) for Bologna, Italy and a user-uploaded map of the system is drastically better than the official map. You should check it out and see if you might want to do a map review on it.

The strange thing is that the logo and branding for the service is actually a pleasant design but the official map is just a mess.

Transit Maps says:

Let’s cover the official map first; we’ll get to the one from Wikipedia later.

Bologna’s SFM is an interesting hybrid rail system nearing completion that seems like it will act like a Metro within the city (lots of stations spaced closely together) and more like commuter – or even regional – rail the further out it goes. Modena is 50 kilometres (30 miles) away by road, and Poretta Terme even more distant. In that respect, it seems to have something in common with the Metro system of Valencia, Spain… now if only the map was as good!

The map has the stark, angular form that seems to be favoured by Italian Metro systems (Milan’s map comes to mind immediately), but it’s just not very well done. It can’t seem to decide whether it’s diagrammatic or geographical in nature and ends up failing at both. 

The long route lines to the south wiggle around in a very unconvincing fashion, with some horribly uneven spacing between stations. Meanwhile, to the west, Vignola is shown as being much further our from Bologna than Modena, when the opposite is true in real life. I’d prefer to see tightly but evenly spaced stations within the city limits (which could be delineated with shading or similar), and wider spaced stations for the “commuter” part of the journey, reinforcing the dual nature of the system. Better indication of the relative locations of the route termini would be necessary as well.

A couple of other bugbears that I hate to see: station ticks that sit directly on the point where a route line changes direction (ugly!), and route lines that change direction with an acute angle like the S2(A) line does south of Casalecchio Garabaldi station. If it looks like a train has to reverse to get around a bend on your map, then you’re doing it wrong! Smoothing out the angle with a curve can mitigate this problem, but that wouldn’t quite work with the angular aesthetic of this particular map.

Our rating: Kevin’s right about the branding looking much better than the actual map. A chance wasted to make this new network look super amazing and awesome right from the start. Two stars.

Source: SFM Bologna web site

Submission – Official Map: DCTA A-Train Map, Denton County, Texas, 2015

August 3, 2015
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Submitted by Kara Fischer, who says:

I think I may have a new map for your Hall of Shame! Here’s the official map for A-Train service in Texas. That yellow line’s VERY hard to see on the pale background; there’s much more emphasis on the street grid and the lakes. And those station icons! I can’t tell what five of them are, and it’s absolutely ridiculous to only label them in the legend! Why can’t there actually be labels on the map?

Also, the Green Line connection is horribly misrepresented. It’s a light rail line that you can transfer to at Trinity Mills, but the way it’s represented here implies that it’s an extension of A-Train service. It’s an important connection – they need to get it right!

Transit Maps says:

Steady on there, Kara! Yes, the map has some deficiencies, but it’s no way near being “the worst of the worst” and earning a spot in my Hall of Shame. For a start, it’s generally decently drawn and utilises a nice typeface (Font Bureau’s Agenda). 

I would agree with many of your points however – the A-Train’s route line could have more contrast with the background, and/or could be thickened up a bit. I’d also really like to see its route simplified as the highways and roads are. It seems weird that the roads are all gunbarrel straight, while the train line meanders about all over the place. Intentionally or not, it makes road travel look more efficient and direct than rail, which kind of defeats the purpose of the whole thing, right?

The interchange with the DART Green Line definitely needs some work. As Kara says, it looks like a future extension of the A-Train at the moment; a green arrow pointing southwards could be far more effective.

Like Kara, I’m absolutely baffled as to why the stations aren’t labelled directly on the map – having a legend for the sole purpose of providing names for them seems unnecessarily obtuse. And the low-res rasterisation of some of the icons is definitely unfortunate: probably a byproduct of some very low quality flattening/resolution settings when the PDF was exported from Illustrator.

The labelling on the map could also use some work: county names cross over some roads when there’s plenty of empty space for them just to the left, and Shady Shores Road’s label strangely reads from the left when all the other vertical/angles labels read from the right.

Finally, there’s some strangely selective simplification of the roads: where’s the toll bridge over Lewisville Lake (a continuation of Swisher Road near the centre of the map)?

Our rating: Bad, but not that bad. One-and-a-half stars.

Source: Official DCTA website

Submission – Future Map: Four New Rail Lines in 2016, Denver, Colorado

July 24, 2015
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Sent in by Edward Russell, who says:

Possible base for new Denver rail map? I spotted this map showing the new rail lines opening in Denver in 2016 on the train. I like the design a lot more than the official rail map. It seems much cleaner and clearer then the other maps that you have shown. What do you think? Could this be a good base – clearly they’d have to add the existing lines to it – for the new map in 2016?

Transit Maps says:

I don’t think so, Edward, although you’re right in saying that it’s generally more attractive than RTD’s usual efforts. To me, this looks more like a piece of promotional artwork that ties in nicely with the corresponding informational web page. There’s some nice typography as well, with the ever-pleasant Proxima Nova being deployed, just as it is on RTD’s website and other materials.

However, I don’t think that this map could ever be developed into a new full system map without a lot of reworking. The neatly arranged route letters – like the notes of a musical scale! – along the main light rail trunk line would get in the way of any stations for a start. The compression of the entire downtown loop into one big grey blob is also a problem that would have to be overcome. Then there’s the awful acute angle that the W Line takes as it heads out to Golden…

I do see some potential here – this map is drawn much more precisely than the official one – and I really, really do hope that RTD is looking at completely revamping their rail map as all these Fastracks projects come online this year… but I’m not holding my breath!

Historical Diagram: Piccadilly Circus Tube Station by Renzo Picasso, 1929

July 24, 2015
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We all know that I love a good cutaway diagram, and this example – drawn by Italian architect and urban designer, Renzo Picasso (no relation) – is just superb. Drawn in 1929, coinciding with the opening of Charles Holden’s sub-surface circular booking hall which replaced the original 1906 above-ground Leslie Green-designed station building. The unusual perspective, halfway between the platform level and the (invisible) roads above, permits a wonderful level of clarity in the drawing. 

The only slight drawback with the digram is the strange mixture of English and Italian labels: “east bound” and “west bound”, but also “scala di servizio” (service stairs) – but this in no way detracts from the amazing quality of the draftsmanship.

The label above the famous statue of Eros – A “World Centre” – might perhaps be referring to a contemporaneous mural by artist Stephen Bone in the concourse that showed the world with London at its centre (naturally!).

Source: The Renzo Picasso Archive’s Facebook Page