All posts tagged: 4.5 stars

Unofficial Map: Transportation of Walt Disney World Resort, Florida, 2012

July 16, 2012
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Here’s a seriously impressive piece of work by Arthur de Wolf that I came across while trawling Flickr. This map shows transportation options at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida – monorail, bus, water transportation, parking lot trams, even walking routes between transportation hubs. Walt Disney World Resort is the size of a small city and has a transportation system that puts many of them to shame. Bringing order and sense to this system […]

Historical Map: British Rail Greater London Network, 1965

May 17, 2012
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Here’s a fantastic map out of England in the mid-60s, showing British Rail service in the Greater London area. It’s almost staggering to think that a map this well drawn was created without the use of computers. I definitely recommend clicking through to the large image on Flickr to savour all the beautiful, crisp linework: this map is technically excellent. Have we been there? Yes, and I’ve used many of the great London terminus stations, […]

Official Map: Maryland Transit Administration Regional Transit Map, 2012

March 30, 2012
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Here’s a large-format multi-modal map from the Maryland Transit Authority, centered on Baltimore. Contrast it against this previously reviewed map of similar scope from the Los Angeles Metro, and it can be seen that the MTA map has got a far better balance of design and usability, and is actually a quite superb and comprehensive map. Have we been there? No. What we like: Incredibly legible for such a dense map. It shows light rail, […]

Historical Map: East Berlin U-Bahn and S-Bahn, c. 1989

March 9, 2012
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As a direct contrast to my previous post, here’s the East Berlin perspective of transit in that divided city. Notice anything? West Berlin has almost been entirely excised from the map: a small, empty, featureless area totally encircled by extensive East German rail lines as well as the Berlin Wall: here referred to as the “state border”. A powerful statement of East German superiority if there ever was one. Have we been there? Yes. What […]

Unofficial Map: Integrated Transit Map of Kiev, Ukraine by Igor Skliarevsky

December 29, 2011
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Yes, I know I said I wasn’t going to post until the New Year, but I couldn’t wait to show this exciting new map of transit in Kiev, Ukraine. This beautiful diagram was designed by Igor Skliarevsky in his own time, simply because he was frustrated with the limitations and design of the official map. As he says on his website (pardon the Google Translate from Ukrainian), “As a designer, I find it difficult to […]

Historical Map: George Dow Diagram of LNER Great Northern Suburban Services, 1929

December 13, 2011
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Almost everyone credits Harry Beck with “inventing” the diagrammatic transit map in 1933 with his iconic London Underground map. But the diagram form had already been in use for a number of years before that, as shown in this delightful 1929 diagram for LNER suburban services out of London’s Kings Cross station to points north. It was designed by George Dow, who created many such diagrams for the LNER. His son, Andrew Dow, wrote a […]

Official Map: Subte, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2011

November 3, 2011
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This map is another fine example of how to integrate a transit diagram onto a street grid. The streets are shown in a subordinate grey at a thinner line weight, and fade away to nothing when no longer needed. The bright, bold subway lines stand out well against this background, and lots of important information is clearly marked. One piece of information that I don’t think I’ve seen on any other transit map: a line […]

Official Map: Barcelona Metro, 2011

October 19, 2011
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An attractive and easy to follow map with a few unusual features. At first glance, it appears to be a diagrammatic map in the form of the London Underground Diagram, but it’s actually overlaid on a simplified, but accurate street grid, allowing easy reference to the features of the city. Especially prominent is the Avenue Diagonal – a major feature of the city emphasized by excellent design. It also cleverly rotates the map to fit […]