All posts tagged: bus map

Historical Map: Map of Glasgow Corporation Transport Services, c. 1934

April 10, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

A handsomely drawn map that does some sterling work with just three colours (a very modern combination of black, cyan and magenta!). Of particular note is the clever way that a solid magenta line (bus service), can be combined with a dashed black line (trams) to indicate where both types of transportation share the same route without having to draw two separate lines. Interestingly, buses appear to have route numbers, while trams are designated by […]

Unofficial Map: Transit of Riga, Latvia by Viteks Bariševs

February 28, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps
Tags:

Transit Maps has been keeping an eye on this project for quite some time now: I reviewed an earlier version of this map way back in January 2012, noting that it held a lot of promise for the future. At the time, Viteks was hopeful that he could get his map adopted as Riga’s official transit map. While that hasn’t quite happened yet, he’s definitely set himself up as an excellent alternative to the (pretty […]

Official Map: Bus Network of Brownsville, Texas

February 18, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

A strong entry into the Transit Maps Hall of Shame from Brownsville, Texas, with this map that depicts the Brownsville Urban System (or “BUS” — I see what they did there). Where to start with this awfulness? Probably with the graduated blue background that causes visual dissonance (that shimmering edge when colours clash horribly) with just about everything else on the map, especially the red street name labels! It also makes the underlying grey road network […]

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

January 21, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

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. […]

Historical Map: AC Transit Route Map, 1967

December 26, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

Sweet illustrated map of bus routes in the East Bay, including a multitude of transbay services: I count 16 crossing the Bay Bridge to San Francisco! As with all maps of this ilk, the fun part is finding all the little details in the illustrations that are liberally scattered throughout (My favourite is probably the sailor who is busily chatting up the cute nurse at the top centre of the map). The subtle painted texture […]

Official Map: “BUZ” Frequent Service Bus Network, Brisbane, Australia

November 6, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

“BUZ” apparently stands for “Bus Upgrade Zone”, a somewhat convoluted way to refer to frequent service routes – every 10 minutes in peak periods and every 15 minutes at other times. That Brisbane has 20 such frequent service routes is actually pretty impressive, but the map itself is not. What a horrible, twisted, messy, scraggly attempt at a network map this is. Completely diagrammatic in some parts, and overly precise in others: what is with […]

Historical Map: San Diego “Park Line” Bus Route Map, June 1978

October 1, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

Looks like tightly-spaced Avant Garde was totally in vogue in 1978 (see also this Portland, Oregon bus map). This is a charmingly naive little map, complete with scratchy pen and ink drawings of points of interest, a lovely ornate north pointer (another 1970s typeface with some great swashes!) and an adorable little green hand pointing at the downtown inset. It even clearly shows all relevant street names and interchanges with other routes. What’s not to […]

Fantasy Map: Tyneride BRT Network Map

September 30, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Fantasy Maps
Tags:

Utterly plausible bus rapid transit (BRT) system map for the Tyneside region of England, designed as if it was a division of the Tyne & Wear Metro. While I can’t comment on whether Nexus/Metro would ever actually operate its own BRT network, I certainly can’t fault the aesthetics of the map itself. It’s absolutely spot-on, mimicking the look of the official Metro rail map (Nov 2011, 3.5 stars) perfectly. The 30/60-degree angles and the use […]

Historical Map: TriMet Bus System Map, Portland, Oregon, 1978

September 27, 2013
comments 3
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

Not much use for route planning: this map was really made just to show how the routes that ran into the city centre were grouped into geographic regions and denoted by a colour and an icon. While stops along the transit mall are now marked with boring old letters, back then these cheery and oh-so-1970s symbols guided you to the bus stop you needed. Also very 1970s: the tightly-kerned Avant Garde typeface. Source: TriMet’s “How […]