All posts tagged: California

Historical Map: Pacific Electric Railway System in Southern California, c. 1926 by Jake Berman

September 5, 2018
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I’m really enjoying this modern take on a map of the Pacific Electric’s sprawling electric streetcar network by Jake Berman. Obviously based on the period map shown (or an extremely similar one!), it retains a lot of the visual energy of the original – mainly because of the multiple angles used for both the route lines and labels. Normally, this might be something I’d find fault with, but I think it’s totally appropriate here when […]

Submission – Unofficial Map: Los Angeles Metro Map Redesign, Showing Lines Operational by 2028

May 11, 2018
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Submitted by Julian, who says: I was compelled to redesign my town’s transit map after reading a comment on LA’s map during the World Cup that said a detracting feature was that it looked “empty.” I try to solve this problem by both bringing more balance to the arrangement of the lines and giving a sense of geographical context with regional borders. I tilted north 45 degrees to create the pleasing visual effect of the […]

Submission – Official Map: New BART Extension to Antioch

April 30, 2018
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Submitted by Josh, who says: Hey there! Curious about your thoughts on what looks like BART’s decision to not show its new eBART line as a separate line. If you haven’t been following it – instead of extending BART from its northeast terminus at Pittsburg/Bay Point, it instead built a two-station extension built to standard railroad gauge (BART uses Indian gauge) and running light rail DMUs. There’s a separate transfer platform at Pittsburg/Bay Point where […]

Question: do you have a map of Los Angeles back from the late 1970s?

April 7, 2018
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Q Hi, do you have a map of Los Angeles back from the late 70s? Am looking for any kind of transit map but haven’t found anything yet. Would be a huge help. Thanks in advance! A The LA Metro Archives has some 1970s bus maps available (there was no rail service in the 1970s, though there are some early planning documents). Specifically answering your request, here’s the SCRTD bus map from January 1979. You […]

Historical Map: BART System Map and Planned Extensions, March 1, 1989

March 13, 2018
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Here’s a rather charming illustrated map showing the Bay Area’s BART commuter rail system as it looked in early 1989, plus a glimpse into the future as it was envisioned at the time. I particularly like the little details in this map – drawn by Art Richardson of BART’s “Documentation Division” back in 1983, it would seem – all the bridges are drawn accurately, and the skylines of San Francisco and Oakland are also well […]

Submission – Fantasy Map: Los Angeles Rapid Transit – the “Tom Bradley” System by Julian

January 28, 2018
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Submitted by Julian, who says: In the post-interurban era of Los Angeles, various proposals for a reinstatement of rail service surfaced from time to time in the political discourse. Starting in the early 60s, the plans often sought to replicate the model of the Bay Area Rapid Transit or Atlanta’s MARTA heavy rail systems. By the late 70s, the foremost proponents and planners of such a system were the then-dominant Southern California Rapid Transit District […]

Submission – “Transit Flow” by Ray Luong

March 1, 2017
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A visual exploration of BART ridership throughout a typical workday. Watching the video below is fun, but the actual tool – made with HTML/CSS, JS, .d3.js, Sketch and BART ridership data – is even better. Click here to view it.  After you’ve watched it through to about 2pm, some controls will appear down the bottom left to change the speed of the simulation, and also switch between “inbound” and “outbound” trains (which I think should be labeled […]

Submission – Fantasy Map: Los Angeles Metro in the Style of the 1972 New York Subway Map by Cullen McCormick

January 4, 2017
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Submitted by Cullen, who says: A few months back you answered a question of mine with some tips for preparing artwork for inkjet printing. Everything printed great, so thanks again for your help! Thought you might enjoy seeing the finished map. Transit Maps says: I always say that if you’re going to do an “in the style of” map, you should aim to replicate the source as closely as possible. That’s how you learn what made […]

Historical Map: Points of Interest Reached by the Yellow Cars and Coaches, Los Angeles, 1938

December 22, 2016
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A charming illustrated map – attributed to artist Ruth Taylor White – showing landmarks and destinations that could be reached on the Los Angeles Railways’ electric streetcars and motorcoaches, some of which are shown traversing the streets of the city. The LARY’s headquarters at 1050 South Broadway are shown at the centre of the map (#36). Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find the numbered key to the map, but most of the points of […]

Official Visualization: SFTMA Future Subways Heatmap

October 18, 2016
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Remember back in August when the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) asked for the public’s input on where future subways in the city might run by means of an interactive “draw a subway map” tool?  Well, they’ve just released the collated results of that survey – which had some 2,600 respondents – as a heat map, and the results are certainly definitive. It would seem that almost everyone wants a subway line along the […]