Historical Maps: Rail Transit in North America, 1984 by Dennis McClendon

January 16, 2015
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I thought I was all done with “to scale” maps of North American rail systems, but then Dennis McClendon (see previous posts from him) sent in this beautiful series of maps that he produced for Planning magazine back in 1984. Dennis himself says:

Given this week’s Tumblr theme, I thought you might be interested in these maps that I did in 1984, when I worked for Planning magazine. The “new wave” of modern light rail systems was just getting started. My initial idea was to do them all at the same scale, but integrating them with the text into a two-page magazine layout eventually required a compromise of doing them at two distinctive scales.

No GIS or even Illustrator in those days: I created these using Rubylith and Chartpak flexible line tape.

Of note is the large number of systems that were either brand new or still under construction: Portland’s “Banfield” line – now the main section of line between downtown and Gateway – being especially noticeable to me. Also – massive extensions under construction for the Washington DC Metro, and the parlous state of streetcars in New Orleans, with service on the historical St. Charles line only.

And just to throw further fuel onto the fire regarding the categorization of certain systems as either light rail or streetcar, which many commenters on Matt Johnson’s map brought up. In 1984 at least: Pittsburgh and Boston’s Green Line were classified as “light rail” while Philadelphia and the San Francisco Muni were seen as “streetcar”. Make of that what you will.

Source: Dennis McClendon via email.

Melbourne Trams and Toronto Streetcars to the same scale as US Streetcar Systems

January 14, 2015
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My final post on this subject (for now). I absolutely love these two separate graphics that take a previous version of Matt Johnson’s graphic (which only compared streetcar systems in the US) and add either Melbourne’s comprehensive tram network or Toronto’s streetcar network at the same scale.

To be honest, I almost didn’t believe the Melbourne one when I first saw it – surely the creator had muddled up miles and kilometres! – and had to double check to make sure. It’s accurate.

Of course, Melbourne and Toronto are two of the few cities in the world where tram/streetcar operation have been continuous since their initial date of operation – electric streetcars began running in Toronto in 1892, while the first electric trams appeared in Melbourne in 1906. Looking at the US map, it can be seen that the historical streetcar networks of Philadelphia and New Orleans (a remnant of a much larger system) are the closest in scope and size to these two powerhouses; while the new, modern streetcars are much smaller, acting as downtown or inner city circulators, rather than a comprehensive city-wide transit system.

Sources: Melbourne – Crikey.com, Toronto: Adam Wenneman/Twitter

Infographic: Rail Rapid Transit of the United States and Canada to Scale by Peter Dovak

January 14, 2015
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A follow-up to yesterday’s post: several people pointed me to this graphic by Peter Dovak that extends the concept to include all rail-based rapid transit in the USA and Canada, including people movers and monorails (but not commuter rail).

transitoriented:

A compilation of rail rapid transit systems drawn (but not arranged) to scale.  An attempt at an homage to this classic map by Bill Rankin, updated for 2015.

View a larger resolution version here.

American Light Rail and Streetcar Systems to Scale by Matt Johnson

January 13, 2015
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Nice work here from long-time Transit Maps correspondent Matt Johnson as he visualises all existing and under construction light rail and streetcar systems in the USA in one graphic. In a way, this graphic is an update of this fantastic (but now out of date) one by Bill Rankin that shows the relative scales of all North American rail-based urban rapid transit (PDF link).

The sprawling nature of some of the light rail systems is readily apparent, reflecting the suburban nature of those cities. The relative largeness of my hometown Portland’s system surprises me, but I guess it does extend from Hillsboro all the way to Gresham! Streetcar systems tend to be much smaller, serving the central core of a city – some of them barely showing up at all at the scale of this graphic.

Check out the article that accompanies this graphic over at Greater Greater Washington for more details, and be sure to read the comments for some interesting thoughts from readers.

Source: Greater Greater Washington website, via an email from Matt.

Official Map: Salt Lake Express Shuttle Bus Service Area

January 5, 2015
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Here’s a map from a regional bus service that I had to unexpectedly use this last week in order to get to Idaho Falls from Salt Lake City Airport. Linking the Salt Lake Valley with the major regional centres of southern Idaho (Boise, Idaho Falls and Rexburg), Salt Lake Express is a vital transportation option, especially when airfares for the shuttle flights from SLC into Idaho Falls are ridiculously high (grumble, grumble).

While the map is rather nicely designed, it only shows the general extent of the service area, not actual routes. This higher level of detail could be a very handy thing to know for travellers, as on my trip, some people seemed a little confused as to where and if they needed to transfer to complete their journey: Pocatello is a transfer point for those travelling between Salt Lake and Boise, for example.

The other major fault of the map is that it doesn’t show every town that the buses stop at – on this trip, the bus also stopped at Malad City in Idaho, while on a previous trip, it stopped at McCammon, ID as well.

Minor quibbles: the labels for Rigby and Rexburg are a little awkwardly placed and the dotted line between Logan and the main route line isn’t explained in the legend.

Our rating: Looks good, although it could be a little more useful for potential travellers trying to work out how to get from here to there. Two-and-a-half stars.

Source: Salt Lake Express Facebook page

Photo: Toyoko Line Strip Map, Shibuya Station, Tokyo

January 1, 2015
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Lovely clarity with this strip map for the Toyoko Line in Japan (the name is a portmanteau of Tokyo and Yokohama, the two cities that the line runs between).

There are four route lines, each clearly showing which stations the different service types stop at. From top to bottom, these are Local, Express, Commuter Express and Limited Express. Interchanges with other lines – regardless of operating company – are also shown, and it’s bilingual as well!

My only quibble is this map’s placement halfway down a stairwell, which seems bound to cause problems at rush hour.

Source:nicolasnova/Flickr

Photo – Official Map: Atlanta Streetcar In-car Strip Map

December 31, 2014
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Here’s a photo from long-time correspondent Matt’ Johnson of the in-car strip map for the just-opened-yesterday Atlanta Streetcar. I sort of get a Transport for London/Tube Map vibe from it, and that’s a good thing in my eyes. Simple, clean, bold, easy to read, and it doesn’t try to over-complicate or “dress up” what is a very simple loop system.

It’s not completely perfect: all the station names are left-aligned and aligned to the left edge of the stop markers, except at Park Place, where the label has to be pushed further left so it doesn’t overlap the stop marker or the route line. Having set up that exception to the rule, the map then fails to use it for the Luckie at Cone stop, which just looks a little cramped for room.

I also think that the label for Woodruff Park might have benefited from being set in one line instead of two: it gets a little too close to Park Place for my liking. I also think the placement of the “Express Bus” labels is a little inconsistent, but the Centennial Olympic Park stop really makes things difficult in that regard.

Our rating: Simple, clean and nicely legible from a distance. More strip maps should be like this. Three-and-a-half stars.

Source: tracktwentynine/Instagram

Photo: Stride Gum Advert, Montreal, 2008

December 30, 2014
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You know, because the flavour lasts a long, long time.

Source: kellergraham/Flickr

Submission – Historical Map: Berlin U-Bahn Map, 1961

December 28, 2014
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Submitted by procrastinator-penguin, who says:

Love your blog and it would be an honour to be featured! I found this map of Berlin by accident, and have no idea of the date, but I note The Wall is still marked on it. Personally, I think it’s quite beautiful in a way, if a little messy – I really don’t understand the red line well. I like the bold line colours, though.

Transit Maps says:

Thanks for this great submission! The history of transit in Berlin is fascinating, and has been the subject of many previous posts on this blog. Fortunately, thanks to the comprehensive database of Berlin transit maps at the berliner-verkehr.de website, it’s pretty easy to date this map to 1961 – the very year that the Berlin Wall was erected.

The presence of the orange line shown between Leopoldplatz and Spichernstrasse (known as Line “G” at the time, now part of the U9) dates the map a little more precisely to around late August 1961. By this time, the Wall had been constructed, but the map still makes no differentiation between stations on opposite sides of it. The 1963 version draws U-Bahn lines in East Berlin with thinner strokes, and by 1966 the now infamous Geisterbahnhöfe have appeared, with stations on the eastern side of the boundary being crossed out.

The red lines aren’t actually that hard to understand with a little research: this was known as “Line A” at the time and had two main branches – from Krumme Lanke to Pankow (in East Berlin) and from Reichskanzlerplatz to Pankow as well. The short stub between Richard-Wagner-Platz and Deutsche Oper stations operated as a shuttle train only.

As for the look – it’s perhaps a little chaotic in its layout, but still hangs together pretty well, helped by some lovely hand lettering.