Submitted by Lucien, who says:

Beside being inspired by the various radial metro maps featured here over the years, the idea of doing a radial map for Taipei’s metro systems came from the then under construction Circular Line and the city’s overall geography. The Taiwanese capital is situated in a basin with rivers flowing in from the surrounding mountains, so it is conceivable to represent the area in a radial manner, even though the city center itself is very gridded, while the surrounding areas have a much more organic urban growth pattern.

I have worked on this map on and off over the past few years, the original sketch included only MRT lines and the conventional railroad TRA, the finished product added the LRT lines, HSR line, as well as some of the routes being planned, to show the routing of the completed Circular Line. Most lines are in operation, except K (2023), LB (2024) and LG (Phase 1 – 2026).

To accommodate central Taipei’s very gridded boulevards, I had to break the radial rule to have the Green, Red, and Blue lines run in parallel. All other lines more or less follow a polar grid that centers on Taipei Main Station.

Transit Maps says:

Another radial diagram to add to the mix, though I feel that this one is slightly less successful that the Cologne diagram I featured last month. Lucien even mentions the major problem – the dichotomy between the regularly gridded downtown, and the more organic, spoke-like nature of the outlying lines. As a result, he’s tried to accommodate both, which looks a little awkward. For example, the half-circle the Green Line makes around the central hub is nice, but the way that the Red Line is then forced to take a tiny step down to maintain that inner linear grid isn’t ideal.

I’m also not a huge fan of radial diagrams where the circular lines have to stair-step their way around the map in order to line up with interchange stations on the other lines. Here, the yellow Circular Line has to jump around all over the place to make connections, and the future extension to the LG Line has to make little “half-grid” jumps! It’s generally agreed that the less changes of direction a route line has to make, the easier it is to follow – so these convoluted route trajectories are less than ideal. Part of the problem is that the “Circle Line” is in no way actually circular in real life, but this depiction definitely isn’t the solution.

That said, the angled dead-straight trajectory of the main line and HSR routes is fantastic, and the diagram itself is very clean and well-designed. I definitely think it’s a great design exercise, even if it’s not totally practical. As I’ve said before, radial diagrams should only be used for cities which really work with the style, and I’m not sure Taipei quite fits the bill.

I also want to note Lucien’s original hand-drawn sketch for this diagram, which is great, and seems to have a little more fluidity to it, which I really like. The softened edges to the waterways are particularly nice and helps stop the diagram from looking so mechanical. I’d definitely like to see that aesthetic brought into any revised version of this diagram.