Submitted by Shaul Picker, who says: I have a Flickr and save these images from eBay listings and elsewhere. This is from the NJ DOT, now NJ Transit. This map is from the 1970s, as indicated by the presence of the Bayonne Branch. Transit Maps says: This is a great find, Shaul – thanks for sharing! The best I can do to date this is that it’s after 1971 (the formation of Amtrak), but before […]
A well designed transit map conveys a lot of information in a very small space. In an instant, we learn how to get from “A” to “B”, simply by following some coloured lines. The very best maps become symbols of their city, admired and loved by all. While the London Underground diagram-style is the most common type, the transit map takes on many different guises. I’ll be posting reviews of transit maps from all around […]
Ever since I first designed it way back in 2012, I’ve tried to keep my popular alternative Boston MBTA rapid transit map updated as new stations opened and other changes to the network happened. However, with the opening of the Silver Line route to Chelsea (SL3) earlier this year, certain parts of my design just weren’t going to cut it anymore. Looking at the old version, it was also painfully obvious to me that I […]
Created on behalf of a new advocacy group for true high-speed rail in the Pacific Northwest – the aptly named CascadiaRail – this is probably my favourite map of 2018 so far. It’s clear, beautiful, representative of the region, and is wonderfully aspirational – presenting a clear and exciting vision of a possible future. I especially like that there’s no state or national borders shown at all: the region is instead defined by the natural […]
Submitted by Erik – a Transit Service Planning Supervisor at GoTriangle – who says: GoTriangle, a regional bus system in the Research Triangle region of North Carolina, just updated its system map from a mostly geographical map to this schematic version. There aren’t a lot of systems like ours in the US, so we ended up doing somewhat of a hybrid between a subway-style map and a local bus map (for example, we used thicker solid […]
Submitted by alr2659, who says: I found this map of the MBTA commuter rail zones in the Central Square T station on the red line in Cambridge. Strangely, this station does not have any commuter rail service, so I’m not sure why this was there at all. I guess I’ll start with the obvious part: those colors are pretty hideous, and the mud-brown color used for zone 1A does a really good job making it […]
Submitted by lukasmaps, who says: I think I’m gonna hurl… Shows buses, but NOT the Metromover? Come on. Transit Maps says: Well, it at least shows the stations that you can transfer to the Metromover at (all two of them), so it’s kind of on par with the buses – no actual bus routes are shown, just a list of numbers at each station. Showing the Metromover on this map is problematic because of the disparate […]
Submitted by Jeromiah, who says: After the post about the new Frontrunner map (August 2016, 2.5 stars), inspiration came to make one of my own. My map has what was mentioned: TRAX connections, bus connections, and Greyhound (but not Amtrak, If you look at Salt Lake Central on my map you’ll see why) I took out the the lines and changed the north and south pointers. I made the purple line dashed between Ogden and Pleasant […]
Submitted by Mike Christensen, who says: The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) recently added strip maps to its FrontRunner commuter rail trains. At first glance, the maps looked adequate to me. But after a few moments of thought, I have the following critique. First off, the N and S denoting north and south at the end of the route is a bit confusing. However, the biggest criticism I have is the lost opportunity to show connecting […]
Long-time readers might remember Nick’s fantasy Connecticut transit system (April 2015), so it’s nice to see a new “companion piece” from him that reflects the real world situation of the not-too-distant future when the Hartford Line opens in early 2018. As most of the rail in Connecticut runs along the chiefly east-west Northeast Corridor, Nick has come up with the rather clever idea of rotating the whole map 30 degrees counter-clockwise, which allows him to […]
