All posts tagged: 3 stars

New Official Map: TriMet MAX Light Rail, Portland, Oregon, 2014

August 28, 2014
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So I saw this at the MAX stop near my work yesterday, and managed to get some photos of it today. For now, the TriMet website still has the previous map, and it seems like these maps may currently be only posted along the 5th/6th Avenue transit mall downtown (any other sightings elsewhere, PDXers?) So, what’s new? First off is the obvious (and quite radical) change from 45-degree angles to 30/60-degrees… which can’t help but […]

Submission – Unofficial Map: Intercity and Commuter Rail of North America’s East Coast by Edward Powell

July 11, 2014
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Submitted by Isaac Fischer, who says: Here’s a neat map I found online that shows the entire American east coast, as well as southeastern Canada. It shows both commuter and intercity rail lines. As far as I can tell, it seems fairly accurate, and could definitely be useful. Transit Maps says: While there’s more than a passing resemblance to my own Amtrak Passenger Rail map here – both in the general aesthetics of the map […]

Submission – Unofficial Map: Park and Ride Commuter Bus, Northern New Mexico by Isaac Fischer

July 6, 2014
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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 […]

Official Map: South East Queensland Train Network, 2014

June 22, 2014
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Requested by quite a few readers, this is an new version of this map that I reviewed back in March 2012. Unlike that previous map, this one does not show Brisbane’s bus lane network, concentrating solely on the rail system. In my eyes, this is a wise move, as the scale of the map (it’s some 240km – or 150 miles – from Nerang on the Gold Coast at the bottom of the map to […]

Official Map: Budapest Metro and Suburban Rail, 2014

June 9, 2014
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With the recent opening of Budapest’s Metro Line 4, there’s been a rethink behind the city’s transit map. The previous version (July 2012, 2.5 stars) tried to show everything – Metro, suburban rail, regional rail, tram and key bus routes – on one map, but it was all a bit of a mess. With so many thin, colour-coded lines (using a strangely limited palette), things became very difficult to understand. Hence this new approach, where […]

Official Map: Schwäbisch Gmünd Stadtbus, Germany, 2014

May 19, 2014
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Let’s continue our recent look at small- to medium-sized German bus networks with this network map from Schwäbisch Gmünd in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, submitted by Bert. I find this map interesting, because it really shouldn’t work as well as it does. While simplified, there doesn’t seem to be any real logic or unifying design principles behind the angles used for the route lines: they just seem to be drawn to make the routes fit together. Despite that, the […]

Submission – Official Map: Bus Network of Göttingen, Germany, 2014

May 14, 2014
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Submitted by Hubert at the same time as the awful Marburg map. Of this map, Hubert says: Check out the intertwined lines in the city center! I find this approach very interesting and useful and I would really like to hear your thoughts about this. Transit Maps says: The intertwined (or “candy-striped”) lines in the city centre are definitely the most interesting thing about this map. The rest of it is a competent, if unexciting, […]

Historical Map: The “Zéró” London Underground Diagram, 1938

April 29, 2014
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Although clearly based on the H.C. Beck diagram of the period (which was only five years old at the time), this diagram was created and printed entirely without Beck’s knowledge. Although the work is unsigned, it is now known that this map was designed by Hans Schleger – perhaps better known by his pseudonym “Zéró” – who had already created a number of memorable posters for London Transport. Beck was furious, and he wasted no […]

Submission – Historical Map: Los Angeles Metro, 1997

February 10, 2014
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From reader Chris Bastian comes this awesome old photo of an early Los Angeles Metro map, dated precisely to the 14th of November 1997, thanks to our old friend the date stamp. The map is incredibly primitive compared to today’s polished effort, with unevenly spaced stations, labels at all sorts of angles, clumsy integration of Metrolink services, and lots of big, ugly call-out boxes. However, we can see that by 1997, the Blue and Green […]

Official Map: Southern Vectis Bus Map, Isle of Wight, England, 2014

January 21, 2014
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An attractively drawn map that bridges the gap between geographical representation and a diagram rather nicely. While the shape of the island is quite accurate (if simplified slightly), all the roads have been straightened out to remove unnecessary kinks and twists. The routes are clearly marked and major stops are shown efficiently. The map is also supported on-line by town maps for the destinations shown in larger type, so there’s more detail where it’s needed. […]