DART’s long-awaited Silver Line is opening at the end of October, and the agency already has a map out well in advance, so let’s take a look, shall we? Look, this diagram is perfectly functional and does its job, but there are some absolutely baffling design decisions that have been made. First and foremost is the decision to put a big “Effective September 15, 2025” label on the diagram, and then hiding the fact that […]
Submitted by Kevin, who says: A few months ago, the Government of Ireland announced Project Ireland 2040, a scheme covering many aspects of infrastructure and development for Ireland. One announcement was Metrolink. Metrolink is the previously planned Metro North from Dublin City Centre to the Airport plus a connection with the existing Luas Green line and its upgrade to Metro standard giving Dublin a continuous metro line from the Northern suburbs, through the city centre […]
Submitted by Simon, who says: With the new map for the Luas tram system in Dublin being so uninspiring, I decided to try create an integrated map for Dublin’s Dart, Luas and commuter rail. It’s a pretty indulgent map – in that I treat the Luas (tram) lines perhaps too similarly to the heavy rail lines, and the system isn’t quite complex enough to warrant a Vignelli style approach (neither do I apply his principles […]
The other day, long-time correspondent Edward Russell tweeted a photo of a strip map he’d seen while on the Dallas Streetcar (left). It depicts the DART light rail system, telling riders that they can make a connection with that service at Union Station (at one end of the short streetcar line). However, the execution of the map is almost comically poor: wobbly route lines, clashing labels, uneven spacing of stations and more. One of the […]
Submitted by Kevin, who says: I combined two cool developments I’ve seen in transit maps on the internet, the isometric map from Stuttgart (October 2011, 5 stars) and GIFs of the evolution of a system. I lived in Dallas for school and again as a professional and while the network could be better, I always enjoyed riding the DART. And actually the system really lent itself to the map principles that seemed to work for […]
Submitted by Kara Fischer, who says: I think I may have a new map for your Hall of Shame! Here’s the official map for A-Train service in Texas. That yellow line’s VERY hard to see on the pale background; there’s much more emphasis on the street grid and the lakes. And those station icons! I can’t tell what five of them are, and it’s absolutely ridiculous to only label them in the legend! Why can’t […]
The McKinney Avenue Trolley in Dallas, Texas is opening its loop extension tomorrow, June 6th. Working with MATA (the non-profit operator of the trolley line), I updated the map that I donated to them to reflect this new service (see the final map here). And – with my permission – DART is also using the artwork on pole signs along the route (shown above), presumably at the locations where where DART and the trolley interchange. […]
This is pretty much the finished product, I think, barring any major errors. The MATA website states that there are 38 trolley stops along the route, but I can only find 37, even after multiple “drives” along the entire route in Google Street View. I changed the background colour from silver to beige after doing some prints: the whole thing just looked too drab and grey once on paper. This works much better and make […]
Gabe says: I’ve been frustrated with the Dallas rail map for a while, and decided to make a comprehensive diagram of Dallas-Fort Worth rail transit. Transit Maps says: Simply put, this is a beautiful diagrammatic map and is far more visually attractive than the official DART map (August 2012, 3 stars). There’s a very elegant, restrained feeling to this: from the subtle grey background and typography to some excellent, slightly unusual colour choices for the […]
Submitted by “ZMapper”, who included a link to the full map on the official DART website. Have we been there? No. What we like: At first glance, this looks like a nice, clean, modern-looking system map – a breath of fresh air that stands out from the usual geographically-based “road map” bus maps. However, there are some serious usability issus that detract from the light and airy look, which I’ll discuss below. I do like […]
