All posts tagged: 5 stars

Historical Map: Proposed Extensions of Rapid Transit into Suburban Boston, 1945

August 8, 2012
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Here’s another amazing historical planning map, this time from Boston in 1945. Visually, it looks quite similar to this map, but shows an amazing array of planned extensions to the existing system. Some of them were built soon after this map was drawn up:the Revere (Blue Line) extension to Wonderland was essentially complete by 1952, although this map shows the line heading even further north. Others took much, much longer: the (Red Line) to Quincy […]

Historical Map: Paris Metro Map, 1956

August 7, 2012
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Transit maps today are created on computer, and printed with advanced technology. We think nothing of using many different colours, adding a drop shadow behind type, adding a gradient to the background, transparency effects – all things that state-of-the-art design software makes perhaps a little too easy. As a contrast to these glitzy new-fangled maps, I present an antidote: a simply stunning, beautiful and ever-so-French map of the Paris Metro from 1956. It’s printed with […]

Historical Map: PATH Map, New York and New Jersey, 1979

August 3, 2012
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After all the diagrammatic maps we’ve featured so far, it’s nice to showcase something completely different – check out this awesome painted birds-eye view of PATH services between New Jersey and Manhattan from 1979. It also shows other rail services in New Jersey snaking off into the far distance, and even Lady Liberty standing guard over New York and the cutest little Staten Island ferry you ever did see. Have we been there? Yes, but […]

Unofficial Map: A Series of Twin Tubes – A Track Diagram of London

July 21, 2012
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After my previous post about this old track layout diagram from Berlin, reader Rolando Peñate brought this awesome project to my attention – a beautiful track layout diagram of the London Underground, DLR and Overground, complete with platform layouts, disused platforms, yards and sidings. What’s really amazing about this diagram, however, is that its creator, Andrew Godwin, has essentially automated its production. He explains on his website: The map is created with an automated tool […]

Unofficial Maps: Bus Routes of Greater Israel/Palestine

July 18, 2012
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Here’s a pair of maps that transcend my normal method of reviewing maps and demand a more serious approach, as well as a commentary on the power of design to shape and influence our thoughts. These two maps show exactly the same thing – bus services out of Jerusalem and into Palestine. The route lines are identical on each map. The first map presents the services from an Israeli perspective, while the second map presents […]

Fantasy Map: Freshwater Railway, Detroit and Southeast Michigan

May 23, 2012
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This map has to be part of the most convincing fantasy transit system I have ever seen. As well as this stylish and distinctive map, there’s an entire website, complete with additional bus maps, timetables and more. I’ll also note here that the website design puts most transit agencies to shame… If you weren’t familiar with Detroit, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was real (I kind of wonder how many tourists have been tricked […]

Unofficial Map: St. Petersburg Metro, Russia

May 15, 2012
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I came across this map while browsing Flickr last night, and was totally blown away by it. This map of St. Petersburg’s Metro system is simply gorgeous and is far, far better than the current official map. Definitely one of my favourite maps of the year so far. Have we been there? No. What we like: So many things! The lovely pattern used for the waterways, the stylish icons for points of interest, the inclusion […]

Historical Maps: Berlin S- and U-Bahn Maps, 1910-1936

April 25, 2012
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Wow. Just wow. These amazing transit maps of early 20th Century Berlin are just a few samples of the maps that can be found at the BerlinerVerkehr website – an absolute treasure trove that transit geeks like me can easily lose hours to. Five stars for this collection, obviously! All of these maps are of interest, but there’s a few things that really stand out: The “Hoch-und Untergrundbahn” logo used on the 1914 and 1918 […]

Unofficial Historical Map: An Animated History of the MBTA

April 5, 2012
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This is something you just have to look at: an amazing animated timeline of the Boston MBTA Subway over at Andrew Lynch’s Vanshnookenraggen blog (check out his future MBTA maps while you’re there). To my mind, this work is far superior to the animated history of the New York Subway map that was floating around the interwebs a little while back: it’s clearly dated on the map, it’s fully annotated, and even has a slide […]

Historical Map: Harry Beck’s 1961 Victoria Line Tube Map Proposal

January 8, 2012
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It seems I’m having a London Underground kind of week… When people ask me what my favourite version of the London Tube Map is, I always show them this. By 1961, Harry Beck was no longer responsible for producing the Tube map, it having been forcibly passed on to Harold Hutchison. However, more out of hope than anything else, he continued to produce new mockups of the map which he passed on to London Transport […]