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 […]
Yet another variant of the new Boston MBTA rapid transit map for televisual purposes, after this recent one from The Simpsons, and this bizarre repurposing from CSI: Cyber. This one was spotted at Bay station in Toronto, and is for the upcoming Hulu original TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale”. Starring Elisabeth Moss and Joseph Fiennes, it’s based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel. Set in a frighteningly plausible dystopian near-future, the series is sure to be a […]
Submitted by nerdwiththehat, who says: Any thoughts on the MBTA map from The Simpsons’ Boston lambast bash last night? Looks like the new design. Transit Maps says: It sure does, although it has a cunningly crafted square “T” logo to prevent confusion with the real thing. The background water layer has also been deleted, probably to make the route lines stand out a little more obviously. Curiously, it’s labelled as a “bus routes map”, but overall, this is […]
Although this crafty map of the MBTA rapid transit system is very obviously home-made, it has some clever ideas for helping visually impaired riders. Each route line is constructed with different materials, each with their own texture, which enables quick identification of lines by touch. Stations are marked with beads, and there are Braille labels as well, although the placement of some of them could be better. The photo was taken at a disabilities conference […]
A page from the 1977 MBTA Standards Manual showing the specifications for a map panel as installed at the entrance level of a station, using Kendall inbound as an example. Signage much like this can still be seen across most of the rapid transit network. Interestingly, there’s no Kickstarter campaign to reissue this particular standards manual, perhaps because it wasn’t created by a famed Italian modernist designer and is typeset in the most basic manner […]
A fairly rudimentary map used to promote a European S-Bahn-style central rail tunnel under Boston to link North and South stations and provide through-running commuter rail services. An interesting idea, although I’m not sure that Boston has quite recovered from the last tunnel they built just yet. The map is functional enough, but could perhaps benefit from a little more “zing” to help it be the true centrepiece of the campaign. Personally, I’d like to […]
Say what you like about Lyft (”awesome ride-sharing service” or “dangerously unregulated upstart taxi wannabe” seems to describe the polar opposites of opinion), but this is a pretty sweet ad campaign. From the delightfully double-edged campaign name, “Friends with Transit” – which can either echo “friends with benefits”, or simply be a statement that Lyft complements public transportation – to the trademark hot pink lines filling in the gaps left behind by rail transit in each city, […]
Taking transit map wall art to the next level is this piece by Ian Reynolds, an electrical engineer and computer science student at MIT. Not only does it light up and look cool, but it actually queries the MBTA API to show the real-time position of trains on the system. Very awesome. As Ian himself describes it over on Reddit, “The MBTA is a big part of life in Boston, and I built this as sort […]
Sent my way by Andy Woodruff, this map is all kinds of wrong. As it’s from around 2008, it shows an older configuration of the Silver Line routes, with an SL3 route going to City Point. However, the underlying base map hasn’t been adjusted to accommodate the diagram, so SL2 and SL3 appear to take you to destinations deep in the outer reaches of Boston Harbor, while Kendall/MIT is located in the middle of the […]
“The ‘T’: One of Boston’s Last Great Bargains” proclaims this neat little pop-arty pocket map cover. Five of the six colours used in the design make sense (representing the four lines of the “T” plus purple for commuter rail), but what’s the yellow for? Making up the numbers in the days before the Silver Line, it seems. EDIT: My readers are awesome! Thanks to those who have pointed out that yellow was (and still kind of […]
