Historical Map: Map of Washington DC, 1975

September 18, 2014
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Via: ddotdc:

A picture map of the Washington Metropolitan Region, created for the official bicentennial celebration of the American Revolution (1776-1976). Dated 1975. 

Please view a full, high-resolution version of the map.

Image 2: This section of the map gives an overview of the District, as well as listing information about different Metrobus stops and the in-progress Metrorail (which opened in March 1976, just before the bicentennial). 

Image 3: The map gives an up-close look at different sections of the city and inner-ring suburbs, including: Georgetown, Dupont Circle, Southwest, Capitol Hill, and Old Town Alexandria. These special sections point out landmarks such as Howard University, the Library of Congress, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and Rock Creek Park. It also provides information on famous buildings such as the Willard Hotel, the Old Post Office, and the British Embassy. 

Image 4: The last section provides historical details about the District and the surrounding region, including facts about the National Mall, a graph that charts the city’s population growth, and the March on Washington in 1963.

Well, this is just gorgeous (and relevant, as it has a little map of the nascent Metrorail system in the second image).

Submission – Fantasy Map: Venusian Transit Map from the PS4 Game “Destiny”

September 18, 2014
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Submitted by leisurecomplex, who says:

I came across this transit map whilst playing the newly released Destiny on the PS4. This was in the Ishtar District on Venus. I didn’t see any rail infrastructure anywhere though, but the place had seen better days.

Transit Maps says:

Who says it’s a rail system? This is future Venus, right? Maybe it’s a teleporter, or Jetsons-style air tubes or something! Use your imagination! Great find, though: thanks to all who have sent similar screenshots my way.

Historical Map: 1985 “London Connections” Map Uncovered at Embankment Station

September 18, 2014
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Great photos of this fantastic old map, discovered in place (presumably during the Bakerloo/Northern Line station refurbishment works) and now protected in situ by some rather ugly chicken wire. Note that the loop at the western end of the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow Terminal 4 is still under construction, which had been completed by the time this version of the map (May 2013, 3 stars) came out in 1988.

Source: jaggers/Flickr – links no longer active

Illustration: San Francisco by Jenni Sparks

September 16, 2014
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Jenni Sparks does her meticulously-detailed-yet-organic illustration thing with San Francisco (we’ve previously featured her great NYC map), with BART and Caltrain (really?) given strong visual prominence. Strangely, there’s not a single Muni Metro train, F Line streetcar or cable car to be seen!

Via: 99percentinvisible:

A beautiful, detailed, hand-drawn map of San Francisco

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.