Submitted by Hugo Simonsson, who says: The map of the Gothenburg tram (and ferry) network. I think it’s quite nice, but there’s some flaws with the huge bit of space in the top left and the complicated ferry network in the bottom left without clear routes. The choice of colours is nice and mostly clear. Transit Maps says: There’s actually is a reason for the odd combination of wasted space and cramped parts in this […]
Submitted by Lukas, who says: Hi, wanted to send you the new official map of Maryland’s MARC commuter rail system, as seen on the Maryland MTA website. I think it is a great improvement over the old system map. The map very visibly derives its thick lines and transfer station dots from the Washington DC Metro map, which I think it manages to pull off well. However, there are a few things I want to […]
I’ve had quite a few calls to review this map over the last day or so, with people calling it “interesting”, “quite something” and just plain “bad”. It certainly continues the somewhat haphazard evolution of the system map over the last couple of years as more lines have opened, that’s for sure. Visually, it has quite a bit in common with the last iteration I reviewed a year ago, though the most obvious change is the expansion of […]
Sent my way on Twitter by Cameron Coy, this diagram of rail services radiating out from central Adelaide in South Australia isn’t anything special… except for the wonderfully and unashamedly late 1970s typography, with ITC Souvenir Bold deployed in all its curvaceous, tightly letter-spaced glory. I particularly like its use for the main Adelaide station, where the letterforms across the large station circle (intentionally?) evoke the famous London Underground roundel. It’s interesting to note all […]
Submitted by Tony, who says: Hi, I created this map because I always wished someone would. I am not a designer, I am an IT Manager. Please let me know what you think! Transit Maps says: For an IT manager, this is a pretty accomplished effort, Tony! (And it just goes to show how little we should define ourselves by one label – everyone is capable of excelling at so many different things.) Really, this […]
Here’s a great late-1970s diagram that I haven’t seen before of Philadelphia’s subway-surface trolley lines. From the looks of things, this might well have been a strip map within the trolley cars themselves. The subway-surface lines are given full prominence here, with the rest of Philly’s rapid transit rail system represented by very thin route lines mainly confined to the right third of the map. The five trolley routes are treated very diagrammatically, each following […]
An unused test diagram for Boston’s rapid transit network from 1991. It attempts to name every station on the branches of the Green Line, but with the unfortunate side effect of completely dominating the design. The poor old Blue Line gets shoved into the top right, and the northern part of the Orange Line doesn’t fare much better. In short, the whole thing is hideously unbalanced, and I’m very glad that this concept didn’t advance […]
Here’s an unusual use of transit map design principles – a map produced by the Radioactive Waste Campaign in 1988 of the routes used to transport nuclear materials and waste around the United States. This diagrammatic approach actually works very well here – as the legend to the map says: The origin and destination of these routes are well known. However, because of government secrecy, the exact path of these routes is conjectured. Without the […]
The early history of the United States is filled with explorers and pioneers making use of rivers as “rapid transit” to quickly travel through otherwise inhospitable or unknown lands. So it makes sense that someone would attempt to show this network in the simplified form of a subway map, and here is one such example by Theo Rindos. Of course, such a map instantly puts me in mind of Daniel Huffman’s superb series of river/subway maps, […]
Submitted by Bailey, who says: Here’s a map from of the Qingdao Metro for Line 3 – quite an interesting, stylistic one. For all the effort that went into the (quite brilliant) artwork, I’m surprised the station names are entirely unreadable near the city center. Transit Maps says: Despite the name, Line 3 is actually the first Metro line constructed in Qingdao, opening in two stages from 2015. In typical Chinese style, it’ll be joined […]
