All posts tagged: cartography

Historical Map: A Progress Report on the Interstate Highway System, 1961

July 27, 2017
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A great old map on a subject matter very dear to my heart – the Interstate Highway System. Produced in 1961 by the Caterpillar Tractor Company, who stood to gain a great deal in the construction work required to complete the network, it shows the proposed completed network in white, sections under construction with blue dashes, and – somewhat counter-intuitively – sections that are open to traffic in red. It’s immediately apparent how little of […]

Question: Have you ever seen a ski resort map in the style of a transit map?

April 18, 2017
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Q Have you ever seen a ski resort map in the style of a transit map? I was thinking about attempting it, not sure if it is even feasible. A I thought it was pretty much compulsory for every ski resort in the world to have a James Niehues panoramic painting for their resort map, so it’s no surprise that I haven’t actually come across a transit map-styled one yet. The closest I’ve seen are these […]

Historical Map: Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co. Trackage Map, 1910

April 13, 2017
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What appears at first glance to be a street map of Philadelphia in the early 20th century is actually not what it seems. All this map depicts is streetcar track and mainline railroads (in traditional ticked lines), showing how incredibly dense the streetcar network was at the time, especially downtown. Interestingly, a lot of the system appears to be single-track only. Nowadays, only a few vestigial trolley lines recall the days when streetcars reigned supreme […]

Historical Map: Mexico Tramways Company – Lines and Properties in Mexico City, 1910

March 2, 2017
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A lovely old map showing Mexico City’s extensive tram network in 1910. Solid red lines are electric street-running trams, ticked red lines are electric trams on exclusive right-of-way, while green lines are humble mule-pulled trams… of which there are still quite a number. In fact, mule-pulled trams continued to be used in Mexico City up until the 1930s. Electric substations, mule stables, carbarns and other company properties are also highlighted on the map. Streetcars hung […]

Submission – Asian Highway Network as a Subway Map by Xsanda

February 10, 2017
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Submitted by Xsanda, who says: Over the Christmas break I was inspired by your E-Road Network Map, and wanted to create my own map. I chose the Asian Highway Network, a similar system to the E-Road network, as there seemed to be very few maps of the whole network, and the only ones I could find were either too high-level or too vast to easily read. This is my take on the network. However, one […]

Question: How can I simplify a transit map with a lot of concurrent routes?

February 8, 2017
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QHi, I want to make a map of my home city’s bus system, but as I am a ‘starter’ I have some problems with developing it. In our city centre, there is one bus stop with 24 routes and another with 22 (excluding the night routes). Between these two stops, the lines run along two streets with 10 and 11 routes , respectively. What would you advise me to do to not have a big […]

Historical Map: New York City IND Subway Planning Map, 1927

August 23, 2016
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Via: hyperrealcartography: New York City IND Subway planning map from 1927. I don’t have any information about this map other than what’s on it but it appears to be an early version of the Independent Subway System which was built by the City of New York to force the existing private subway companies to sell their lines to the city (”recaptured” as is labeled on the key) .  The plan clearly shows the first section […]

Project: Streetcars and Electric Railways in Portland, 1920

July 31, 2016
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It's safe to say that I'm fascinated with the rich transit history of my adopted hometown of Portland, Oregon, and it's certainly something that I've explored before. This new project started out with a very simple goal – to produce a route map of Portland streetcars at their zenith in 1920 that showed each line separately – but it quickly grew into something much more.

Submission – Official Map: Las Colinas APT System, Irving, Texas

May 31, 2016
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Submitted by Louis Alvarez, who says: I thought you might enjoy this recent artifact of one of the weirdest transit systems in the US: the four-station, two line people mover that serves the Las Colinas suburban development near Dallas. (For me, the most eccentric thing about the system is that despite what one might expect, the cars are manned by human drivers who come to pick you up on request.) The map is such a festival of poor […]

Historical Map: Rail Car and Bus Routes of Central Vancouver, April 1953

April 27, 2016
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A hand-coloured and lettered (in what looks like colour pencil!) map showing the various streetcar, interurban trains and bus routes in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia in 1953 – just five years before the interurban trains ceased operations. The north pointer on this map is one of the loveliest I have seen. See also: this charming illustrated transit map of Vancouver from 1930. Source: City of Vancouver Archives/Flickr