Submitted by Simon H., who says: I stumbled upon this “gem” and I thought it should be brought to your attention, as this is probably one of the more atrocious specimens of the genre. Keep up the good work! Transit Maps says: Oh dear.
Submitted by Michael, who says: I came across this map of Südbadenbus (which is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn), that operates a vast network of regional buses in the state of Baden-Württemberg. It seems that the network is mainly centered around the towns of the region, so I really can’t fathom why all these local networks had to be put on one monstrous map. Transit Maps says: Well, this is pretty terrible. A vast expanse of […]
This has to win some kind of award for “least efficient use of space in a strip map ever”. Let’s see, we’ve got an enormous title, a big picture of the train (that we’re currently on), a giant legend and contact details, and a weird swooshy design feature just to fill up some empty space. Oh yeah, and a tiny little map that’s just been repurposed from the main system map without any thought as […]
Submitted by Simon, who says: I recently found this horrible official map of the regional buses in the North-German town of Wismar. I already planned to make them a proper map until I found out that this bus company doesn’t operate anymore since the end of 2015, so it probably doesn’t matter. Transit Maps says: Not operating anymore, huh? I wonder if having a map that made it virtually impossible to work out where any […]
Brought to my attention by Twitter user Zmapper, here’s a first (and hopefully a last) for a public transit agency – an official map that’s been drawn in Microsoft Excel. Lest you think I’m joking, the downloadable PDF on the EzRider website is named “Copy of Midland Bus Routes sch 2.xlsx”. The visible cell gridlines behind the map are also a bit of dead giveaway. I understand that smaller agencies are strapped for time, money and […]
Submitted by Cyryl, who says: Kielce is a mid-sized (200,000 inhabitants) city in Poland, well-known across transport enthusiasts for its extremely inefficient transport system, consisting of over 60 infrequent (most of them make under 10 trips each way per day) lines. Local transport authority tried to make things a little bit easier… and produced something equally awful. It’s not easy to make meaningful scheme when you have nearly fifty lines on one stop, but this […]
Submitted by Miles Taylor, who says: Here’s the system “diagram” of the TST bus system south of Lisbon in Portugal. It’s impossible to tell what any of the routes are since they’re all just blue lines zigzagging across the map. Not to mention the place names are in comic sans. Ugh. Transit Maps says: The only – and I do mean only – saving grace for this map is that it appears on the same web […]
Isaac submitted this in two parts, which I’ve combined into one post here. Of the first image, Isaac says: This is the map that New Mexico Park and Ride provides in their system timetable; it’s probably the worst designed transit map I’ve ever seen. Not only is the design quality abhorrent, but it doesn’t even show the routes as even REMOTELY geographically accurate, and fails to include about two-thirds of the stops. Why they felt […]
Submitted by Hubert, who says: You really should review more ugly, messed up maps as they serve as deterrent examples. This eyesore of a map is what made me aware of the fact that transit map design is not as easy as it seems. I once sat in line 7 and it took me twenty minutes to figure out whether the bus served the Elisabethkirche Station in my direction of travel. This is literally the […]
A strong entry into the Transit Maps Hall of Shame from Brownsville, Texas, with this map that depicts the Brownsville Urban System (or “BUS” — I see what they did there). Where to start with this awfulness? Probably with the graduated blue background that causes visual dissonance (that shimmering edge when colours clash horribly) with just about everything else on the map, especially the red street name labels! It also makes the underlying grey road network […]
