All posts tagged: cartography

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 […]

Historical Maps: Man-Made Philadelphia, 1972

December 8, 2011
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One last view of Philadelphia transit via these amazing diagrams from a 1972 book by Richard Saul Wurman from the MIT Press, “Man-Made Philadelphia”, now sadly out of print. As well as the train network, there’s also buses, highways and the growth of the city. Definitely loving the early 70s mimimalism design vibe to these. Looks like they were all produced specially for the book. Source: rjwhite/Flickr

Historical Map: Philadelphia SEPTA Map, c. 1979-1980

December 7, 2011
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A reblog by cranialdetritus of yesterday’s featured SEPTA map asked whether I had covered the SEPTA maps of the 1970s yet. I hadn’t, and tracking down an image proved a little tricky. The best I can find is a modern redrawing of the map from around 1979-1980 – credit to Lucius Kwok of Felt Tip Software for this work. It seems to be a quite accurate rendition, as the photo below – showing part of […]

Official Map: Philadelphia SEPTA Network, 2011

December 6, 2011
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After quite a few stellar maps, it’s time to show what I consider to be one of the least successful transit maps in current use in the US. To put it bluntly, SEPTA’s map is an unappealing, jumbled mess and certainly does not get me excited to use their system (a major plus point in my internal scoring system). Have we been there? No. What we like: Deserves credit for attempting to show so many […]

Historical Map: Boston MTA System, c. 1940s

November 29, 2011
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Another aerial-style view of a transit system – this time of Boston’s MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority: now known as the “T”) subway system. The attention to detail is wonderful, with each station and tunnel lovingly and accurately rendered. Note how the routes have different colours to the current map: the current colours come from a system-wide rebranding in the 1960s. Have we been there? Yes, and I used the “T” extensively while there. What we […]

Official Map: Taipei MRT, Taiwan, 2011

November 28, 2011
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Taipei’s Metro system only began construction in 1988, but now has almost 90 stations and over 100km of track. All this comes at a price however, with Phase One of the system costing US$18 billion and Phase Two (currently under construction) estimated to cost US$13.8 billion upon completion. Have we been there? No. What we like: Nice diagrammatic representation – the stylised rivers are handled much better on this diagram than on the Tyne & […]

Official Map: Tyne & Wear Metro, England, 2011

November 17, 2011
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Opened in 1980, the Tyne and Wear Metro is the first of Britain’s modern light rail systems. It also benefits from a very strong corporate identity with the slab serif Calvert typeface (named after its creator and one of the original identity designers in 1977, the famous Margaret Calvert) as a core component. The typeface is used extensively throughout the system, even as wall-sized station names as seen in the photo of Monument Station. Taken […]

Unofficial Map: DC Metro Spiral by Thisisbossi

November 16, 2011
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Related to the parabolic map of the Moscow Metro, here’s a unique take on the Washington, DC Metro – as a spiral. A visually compelling image, and great at showing links between routes, but not actually that useful as a map. Have we been there? No. What we like: Amazingly creative way of re-imagining the system. Looks fantastic! Shows links between routes at transfer stations very effectively. What we don’t like: Absolute lack of geography […]

Official Map: Rail Transit of Stockholm, Sweden, 2011

November 15, 2011
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I really appreciate transit maps that combine different modes of transit, and this map does just that – showing Metro, light rail, trams and commuter rail in a very clean, restrained manner. Coloured route lines (blue, orange and green) set the dense and important Metro network apart from the subsidiary light rail, tram and commuter rail routes, which are shown in grey and thin black lines. Zone information is displayed through a chilly looking cyan […]

Official Map: New Jersey Transit Rail System, 2011

November 10, 2011
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If you’ve reached this page from a search engine hit, please note that this is not the official NJ Transit page, but an independent review of the map as it stood in 2011. If you want to see the current official map, then follow this link [PDF]. If you love transit maps and diagrams, then please stick around and read the review – and more – on this site! This morning, an interesting tweet came […]