Photo: Trader Joe’s/MBTA Map

May 18, 2015
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“This Red Line train is bound for Chard of Many Colors via Black Beans”.

Taken at the Trader Joe’s West Newton store… mostly recognisable as the MBTA “T” map, but with a few additions and exclusions. The Silver Line is now a light shade of blue and promises wild salmon, while the commuter rail lines now seem to sprout randomly from the end of “T” lines in a variety of different colours. Nice hand lettering, though!

Side note: “Heart Healthy Whole Grain Cranberry Oatmeal” is still a shorter station name than “U Street/African-American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo” from the Washington Metro. 

Source: Alisa Zomer/Twitter

Reader Question: Do you know or have a good detailed transit map of Germany’s ICE/IC/RE/etc. services?

May 14, 2015
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Question: Hi Cameron, Do you know or have a good detailed transit map of Germany’s ICE/IC/RE/etc. services? I’ve Googled for it and either I’m not using the right words or I need to be using German terminology for it as what I find is lacking. Thanks!

Answer: There are maps of current ICE and IC services available on the Deutsche Bahn website, but they’re pretty terrible (although they do give you an overview of where the trains go, I guess). Below that “intercity” level of service, there are also maps on that page that break Germany down into more manageable regions, showing the trains that operate within each area.

To be honest, for rail travel within Germany, I tend to forego a map altogether and just use the awesome search page on the Deutsche Bahn site. Just plug in the cities you want to travel between, the dates and any other parameters you need. It’ll return your options, including a complete station stopping list and a rough little map for each option. Bonus: it actually covers all of Europe, not just Germany, so you can use it to plan trips through other countries as well.

If anyone knows of some better maps of passenger rail services in Germany, let me know!

Google Doodle Celebrating 80 Years of the Moscow Metro

May 14, 2015
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Sent my way by Dmitry Darsavilidze, here’s the Google Doodle that’s currently active in Russia (and Kazakhstan) for May 15th – the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Moscow Metro.

Source: The Google Doodle archive

MTA’s response to better inclusion of PATH on the subway map: thanks, but no.

May 14, 2015
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Following on from yesterday’s post about the campaign to accord PATH services equal footing with the subway lines on the MTA subway map, The Gothamist received this response from MTA representative Adam Lisberg (who’s actually really cool, and you should follow him on Twitter):

Showing other regional services like PATH in greater detail is a good use for a regional transit map, similar to the one put together for the Super Bowl. However, our map is a subway map, and its primary purpose is to serve as a guide to the subway system. We put a lot of thought into how to reduce the visual distractions and clutter on the map—we don’t even show our own railroads in much detail—but this proposal would add to those non-subway distractions.

We already show PATH where it meets the subway system, although without seeming to imply nonexistent free transfers at the Sixth Avenue stations, and making PATH more prominent would require shrinking the subway portion of the map slightly to accommodate more of the New Jersey waterfront on the same size paper.

That’s a pretty emphatic “no” in my book. Adam makes some good points – the representation of the 6th Avenue PATH stations would need some work to make clear that transfers to/from PATH are paid, not free – but it does seem like very insular thinking to me. Adam notes that the role of the map is to “serve as a guide to the subway system,” and that’s true… but I would like to expand that role to say: “serve as a guide to using rapid transit in the Greater New York area”. Despite state boundaries, the influence of New York doesn’t just suddenly stop at the Hudson River.

Source: The Gothamist

Submission – Unofficial Map: Subway NY/NJ by Stewart Mader

May 13, 2015
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A compelling proposal to enhance the representation of “New York’s second subway” – the PATH to New Jersey – on the official MTA subway map. PATH carries over 70 million passengers each year, runs 24 hours a day and even accepts pay-per-ride MTA MetroCards as fare payment, but is relegated to the official map’s subsidiary “commuter/passenger rail track” graphical style, while the New Jersey shoreline itself is completely absent (the Hudson River instead looks particularly wide at that point).

I personally think that this is a simple but incredibly awesome amendment to the New York subway map that provides useful information to the end user – which is what a transit map should be about, right?

Read the full proposal here.

Photo: Willesden Junction, Not Willesden Green!

May 13, 2015
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A very obvious sticker hides a rather monumental error on this Bakerloo Line strip map. The rather ugly abbreviation “Junct” only just covers up the fact that this sign used to read “Willesden Green” – which is on the Jubilee Line, not the Bakerloo! Prior to 1979 and the opening of the Jubilee Line, Willesden Green was serviced by Bakerloo trains – but we can’t even blame an old sign here, as this one only dates from the introduction of the Overground brand in 2007 at the absolute earliest. Whoops!

Source: Charlotte Gunnell/Flickr

Submission – Official Map: Municipal Bus Network, Luxembourg City

May 12, 2015
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Submitted by Line Gustafsson, who calls this “Luxembourg City’s spaghetti monster”, and says:

I hate it, the layering of lines is seemingly arbitrary. The bad network design is worsened by choosing very broad lines and thus creating the body of the monster in the centre of the map.

Transit Maps says:

It’s hard to disagree with Line’s nickname for this map, or his frank assessment of it. This is a bit of a mess, especially in the central part where all 27 routes seem to converge without much thought as to how to arrange them efficiently along the central spine. As Line says, the layering of the route lines is pretty random, with lines weaving over and under each other all over the place. This doesn’t make the route lines easy to follow, nor does the fact that there’s no separation between any of the lines: they just all butt right up to each other.

There’s no geography on the map at all, just the names of districts within the city. This wouldn’t present a problem for locals (the city is only 6 miles across at its widest points with a total area of just 20 square miles), but I certainly wouldn’t find this much help as a visitor! Maps like this one just reinforce my belief that bus maps need to be presented within some sort of geographical context – it can be stylised, but bus networks need to be presented in context with their surroundings.

The typography on the map is also pretty disappointing: the title of the map at the top left within the branding shell uses a lovely, friendly and distinctive DIN Rounded font… which doesn’t appear on the map at all. Instead, we get generic standard Windows fonts: Arial, Calibri and Trebuchet. Disappointing.

Our rating: Using another metaphor, it’s like a pile of worms on a page, all twisted around each other. Offers little clarification of a dense network. One star.

See also: Jug Cerovic’s awesome redesign of this map.

Source: Ville de Luxembourg website (link no longer active)

Systems of the Human Body in Schematic/Transit Map Form

May 11, 2015
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Depicting the complex networks of the human body in schematic form makes a lot of sense, and designers have been doing it for a while – as the first diagram above shows. Originally created by German medical illustrator Eduard Weber c. 1960, it’s one of a series of six schematic diagrams that depict the neurovascular systems of the human body. These diagrams are widely regarded as a iconic piece of medical design, and even newer editions of the six-sheet book can command high prices (249 euro for a used copy on German Amazon!).

The transit map metaphor is made explicit in the second diagram, “Underskin” by Dutch designer Sam Lohman. Drawing heavily on the iconography of the London Underground, if not necessarily H.C. Beck’s rigid 45-degree angle topology, the diagram ambitiously attempts to represent eight separate body sytems. I do note that newer versions of this diagram have abandoned the use of the “Tube roundel” logo… I wonder if TfL had a say in that?

Finally, we have Occipital Design’s “Arterial Schematic” from 2012, which concentrates solely on one half of the cardiovascular system, the arterial system (Arteries carry blood that is pumped away from the heart, while veins return blood to the heart). “Zones” divide the schematic up into separate body regions. The designer, Luke Farmery, makes Beck’s influence on his diagram clear on his project page. For mine, this piece is actually an effective use of the transit map metaphor, which does get abused horribly a lot of the time. It’s designed as a simplified learning aid for medical students – just as Eduard Weber’s diagram was some 50-odd years previously – and in that respect, I think it works well.

Submission – EmbarkBOS iPhone App: Boston Rapid Transit Map 

May 11, 2015
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Submitted by Guy Delco, who says:

I’m in Boston regularly for business, and find myself on the T often.  Downloaded the EmbarkBOS app.  It has a particularly good rendering of the MBTA system. I particularly like the way they capture the several commuter rail lines out of South and North Stations in varying shades of purple. 

You’ve probably seen it, but if not, here’s an image screen-capped from my phone. 

Transit Maps says:

Actually, I hadn’t seen this map before (having no need of a Boston map app here in Portland, OR) , so thanks to Guy for sending it along!

Guy is right: this is a very solid representation of the MBTA “T” and commuter rail services in the one map. However, there’s one glaring error in the screenshot that Guy sent: the new Assembly station on the Orange Line (opened August 2014) is not shown. Either Guy needs to update his app to a newer version, or Embark needs to add it to their map!

A couple of minor things on the Framingham/Worcester commuter rail line: it’s not immediately obvious how the line passes through Back Bay station, as the abrupt change in direction is hidden behind the Orange Line. Also, the little jog in the line at Yawkey to separate the commuter station from the Green Line is a little awkward-looking.

The map does a pretty good job at naming all the Green Line stations, although it’s always a shame to not see the Chestnut Hill/Cleveland Circle/Reservoir station triplet in close proximity to each other. As it stands, Cleveland Circle looks like it’s quite near to Riverside, which is much, much further out in real life. However, it’s a diagram, not a map – so I can’t quibble too much about these things!

I do like the addition of airport codes to the map, which add some extra information to the map without being too visually overpowering.

Our rating: A solid combined rapid transit/commuter rail map with a couple of minor quirks. Three stars.

Work in Progress: Time-scaled Hong Kong MTR Diagram by Ryan Carpenter

May 8, 2015
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Submitted by Ryan, who says:

I’ve been working on a variation of a time-scaled transit map (more of a diagram, given there’s no geographic context).  I’m not quite sure how to handle the transfer stations.  I’d like to make it clear how long passengers will spend in the stations (walking, waiting) vs. how long they will be on the trains.  I’d be interested in what you think.

Transit Maps says:

I really like the concept behind this, but I do think there’s a lot of work that can be done to make this diagram visually more appealing and easier to understand. Some thoughts:

Put the numbers for the time legend to both the left and right of the map. Leave enough room that they can run from top o bottom without being interrupted – the way that the numbers for 0-10 minutes are in the middle of the diagram and all the others are off to the right is confusing.

Try and use evenly-spaced column widths between the different route lines, and – as much as possible – try to put all the station names to the same side of the route. There’s some places where labels clash, and it looks a bit ugly.

I’d really like to see a visual differentiation between time spent within a station waiting for another train to arrive and time spent walking between stations. According to the official map, there’s a bit of a hike between Tsim Sha Tsui and East Sha Tsui stations via pedestrian tunnels, so it’d be nice to see that represented. Similarly, the transfer between Central and Hong Kong stations could be represented like this as well. The balloon-like expansion of the interchange symbols to denote dwell time isn’t all that attractive, but I can’t think of a better solution off the top of my head.

The blue Island Line passes through Central station, so I wonder if it might be better to represent it as such, with the shorter section to Kennedy Town continuing above the station marker for Central (with an additional time legend for it), rather than having one part of it to the left of the diagram and the other way off to the right. It just seems a little disjointed.

The complexity of the system also breaks up some of the other lines into separate sections, depending on whether or not it’s time-efficient to reach various stations via a particular route. While unavoidable in the context of the diagram, it does add to the visually fractured nature of the piece.

If you haven’t seen them, Peter Dunn’s excellent time-scaled maps of the Boston MBTA and commuter rail systems are good resources, although the “hub and spoke” nature of those systems makes the task of time-scaling much easier. I think the basis of this diagram is sound, but needs some more work to really make it shine.

(P.S. Doesn’t the Airport Express stop at Kowloon and Tsing Yi?)