Submission – Lukas’ HSR Map Redrawn Digitally by Isaac Fischer

September 15, 2014
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Hi Cameron! This map is in response to the map you posted by Lukas, age 12. I thought that Lukas’s map was quite interesting – the network reminded me of Alfred Twu’s high-speed rail map from last year, and the style was remarkably similar to that of my own hand-drawn maps. However, I thought that the map should not have stopped at a hand-drawn sketch, and so I took a few hours drawing up this map in OmniGraffle. I was hoping that you could pass this map on to Lukas, and I hope that it encourages him to invest in a drawing program to help him in his future cartographic endeavors. (Maybe he could ask for OmniGraffle for his birthday or for Christmas? It’s in about the right price range, although it’s only for Mac, and I know from experience that it’s easy to use even at age 12.)

Transit Maps says:

A faithful rendition of Lucas’ vision that I hope he enjoys seeing! The only difference I see is that Lucas showed the Appalachian line as two separate routes from beginning to end, instead of one line that branches to Detroit or Chicago. And I think his original Columbia Rail logo was meant to represent a high speed train, windows, doors and all.

Work in Progress – Downtown Pittsburgh Neighbourhood Map

September 13, 2014
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Lovely work here, with just enough dimensionality to make things interesting. The “3-D” landmark buildings are nice, but what I really like are the shadows underneath bridges and overpasses that visually lift them up higher than the underlying roads. Some nice insight into workflow, as well – the accuracy of ArcGIS combined with the visual punch some Illustrator work can bring.

Via: mappingtwincities:

Work in progress on neighborhood maps. This map is a part of lager panel that will show bus connections near light rail stations.

I always start with ArcGIS to compile initial data layers, then I style everything in Illustrator. Major landmarks are used to orient transit users in relation to the two-letter stops. The simple 3D shapes can be quickly put together in either Sketchup or directly in Illustrator using ‘extrude and bevel’ tool. 

Historical Map: Montreal Metro Map, July 1979

September 12, 2014
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From the days before the current colour-coding of the lines and the now-iconic black background. Here, we have dark blue (or black: it’s hard to tell from this picture) instead of green for Line 1, and red instead of orange for Line 2. Line 4 retains its yellow color, and the three colours combined also form part of the Metro’s branding at the base of the map.

The map itself is fairly blocky and primitive, and the stairstepping effect on Line 1 in the eastern portion of the map creates some problems with label placement. The shoreline is strangely detailed in comparison with the rest of the map. 

The enormous “no smoking” icon is much larger than the agency logo, and apparently, way too many people interfere with the doors.

Our rating: An interesting look at the early days of Montreal’s map, although it’s not very memorable in itself. Two stars.

Source: transit103/Flickr

Photo: Tactile Muni Metro Map, San Francisco

September 11, 2014
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Maps in underground stations on the Muni light rail network in San Francisco have raised route designation letters and route lines, as well as braille labels for station names. Nice!

I know that it’s entirely happenstance*, but I really appreciate the fact that the M, K, and T lines appear next to each other on the map, making an “MKT” for Market Street.

*Historical aside: Muni streetcar letters were originally assigned alphabetically in the order they came into being, all the way from A to N. Letters then disappeared as many of the old streetcar lines were converted to numerical bus routes, leaving us with the strange assortment of letters we have now. The modern T Line breaks from this naming convention, as it simply refers to the road it mostly runs along, Third Street.

Source: jdaisy/Flickr

Photo: Tattoo based on H.C. Beck’s First Paris Métro Diagram

September 10, 2014
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The inspiration for this tattoo (which looks real) is really quite obvious when you know what you’re looking for. This is H.C. Beck’s first unsolicited attempt at a Paris Metro diagram from around 1939, and has been reproduced quite faithfully (although without the station names).

Source: zachhaschanged/Instagram

Reader Question: Do the MAX Rail Yellow and Green Lines Terminate at PSU or Loop Around?

September 8, 2014
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Question: Do the MAX Rail Yellow And Green lines Terminate at PSU or loop around? On the official map, they terminate and on your combined rail map they loop around.

Answer: Operationally, Green and Yellow Line trains terminate southbound at the SW Jackson station. All passengers have to disembark there, but the trains do then enter a loop between SW Jackson and the SW College station for a short layover before changing their destination blinds and heading north along 6th Avenue.

So it’s really an individual design decision whether to show that loop or not: it doesn’t exist from a passenger’s perspective, but is required to move trains between the two stations. I personally prefer to show the loop (but also indicate the terminus by use of the correct station marker) because I think it makes more logical sense – how else do the trains get from one station to the other? Teleportation? Interestingly, TriMet used to show the loop for the old western end of the Yellow Line between the Library/9th and Galleria/10th stations before it was rerouted down the 5th/6th Avenue transit mall.

Fantasy Map: Mock-Up Boston MBTA Map Spotted in LA for Filming

September 8, 2014
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Posted by Seiji Tanaka on his Twitter account, here’s a fictional MBTA map at an LA Metro station for film/TV shooting. The map is at the fictional “Rockwater” station on the equally fictional Yellow Line (replacing the real world Orange Line).

We’ve covered fictional transit maps from TV shows and movies before (this weird DC Metro map from the TV show “Leverage” springs to mind), but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one where the prop designers have just downloaded and edited the official map, which is obviously what has happened here. What’s more, it’s been edited really badly.

The blue water and white background of the official map has been removed and the whole map has been placed on a grey/beige background instead… but all the white boxes behind bus route numbers and white keylines around the route lines that were used to separate them from other elements are still in place. Which means there’s a lot of weird, random white elements on the map for no apparent reason. There are also ferry routes, but no water for them to sail across.

Most of the commuter rail routes have been removed, but not all of the stations: Yawkey is just floating in the middle of the map by itself, for example, and interchange stations still retain their extra “blob” for commuter rail platforms.

The real-life Blue line is now Purple, the Green Line is now Blue (with all sorts of branch name errors) and the Orange Line is now Yellow. This line has also had all of its station names changed, mostly to very un-Bostonian names, like “San Jacomo” and “Cabrerra”. Is this the MBTA or Grand Theft Auto? To me, this suggests that this part of the map might feature a little more prominently in whatever scenes it is featured in.

Yes, I know that these maps tend to appear fleetingly in the background of whatever show they’re used in, so it’s a little unfair to subject them to the same scrutiny as a real transit map, but this one struck me as particularly odd, seeing as it’s so directly and obviously based off the official map (it even has the crossed-out station icon for Government Center).

P.S. Anyone know what TV show/movie this prop is from?  It’s been confirmed that this is from an episode of “CSI: Cyber”.

Submission – NEW Official Map: MARTA Rapid Rail System, Atlanta, Georgia

September 4, 2014
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‘Tis the season for new transit maps in the United States! Hot on the heels of Portland’s new MAX light rail map comes this new version for Atlanta’s rapid rail system. These photos were submitted by long-time correspondent Matt Johnson on a recent visit to Atlanta, and he notes that they are present in many of the system’s major stations.

For the time being, MARTA’s website is lagging behind, still displaying an older version that’s sort of halfway between this map and the version I previously reviewed (Oct 2011, 3.5 stars).

This map has quite a few improvements and changes from the version I previously reviewed, not the least of which is the change from Futura to Helvetica as the map’s main typeface. This makes a big difference in my eyes – Helvetica may have some failings that prevent it from being a truly excellent wayfinding typeface, but its clean looks and large x-height are a big step up from the idiosyncrasies of Futura.

The other big change is the way that night services are now shown as a separate inset map, rather than trying to explain them on the main map with different markings on the route lines. For a relatively simple system like Atlanta’s this works extremely well and is definitely easier to use and understand. However, it introduces one element that is simply awful and totally out of character with the simplicity of the rest of the map. The nighttime Red and Green Lines (the ones that have service cut back to only cover the stand-alone sections of track) have tiny little directional arrows running along both edges of the route line. I guess it’s meant to emphasise the shuttle-like nature of the lines, but I think that it’s totally unnecessary (as well as ugly). Bi-directional travel along route lines is inherently implied on a transit map unless specifically indicated otherwise, so why are these arrows even needed?

Other changes for the better include better drawn route lines than now nest properly going around curves (yay!). They’ve also lost their bounding black keylines, which helps to simplify the map – the Gold Line is a deeper hue now to enable it to retain its visibility compared to the other lines.

Our rating: In a way, this map has almost come full circle back to the stylish minimalism of the map used in the late 1970s/early 1980s, and that’s a good thing in my eyes. The little directional arrows on the night services map are a strange aberration, but overall, this is a solid improvement over previous recent maps. Four stars!

Fantasy Map: London Tube Teleporter

September 3, 2014
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Absolutely brilliant. Repurposing the Underground roundel as a selector dial for destinations is hilarious, as is the fact that you can only use a Visa card (the only credit card accepted at the Olympic Games). Apart from Lord’s, I’m not sure I think that much of the destinations available, though…

Source: John Gulliver/Flickr

Submission – Unofficial Map: Regional Rail Network for Rennes, Brittany

September 2, 2014
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Submitted by favrebulle, who says:

This is a proposed regional rail network for Rennes, Brittany. The map is my own work. The network revolves around a central Ring. Lines come in two types. Main lines are in bright colors, and circulate all day, every day, twice an hour. Secondary lines are in pastel colors and run during rush hours, or during special events for the Expo Arena line. Intercity and high-speed services (not detailed) are the grey, outern lines. The stations are simple, white indentation in the lines. Texts come in only two angles. Finally, the map is in Breton.

Transit Maps says:

Stylistically, this map immediately brought to mind this commuter rail map from Madrid (June 2013, 3 stars), which similarly features a central ring and sharply angled corners.

I do like the interesting “half-circle” device used for stations, and the way it changes into a full circle when two lines are present, or a longer “pill” shape for three or more lines. It’s a logical transformation and is used effectively throughout.

Less successful are the pastel colours used for the rush hour services – they’re too visually recessive (the light yellow S24 line almost disappears completely), and S21 and S22 look way too similar to each other. Something that could help here would be to link the route designations in the legend to the lines on the map, so that it’s easier to work out where each line begins and ends.

Our rating: A nicely distinctive diagrammatic style of map that just needs a little more work on the usability side to make it really successful. Two-and-a-half stars!