All posts tagged: history

Video: History of the MBTA’s Rapid Transit Map

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Miscellany, Official Maps

I came across this on YouTube the other day, and thought it was definitely worth sharing. It’s quite long (clocking in at well over an hour if you include the Q&A session at the end), but there’s a lot of great insight into both the history of the MBTA map, and of Ken’s personal journey designing the map over the years. Of particular interest is how the whole redesign via a crowd-sourced contest a few […]

Submission – A History of San Francisco Area Street Rail Transit by Travis Emick

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Visualizations

Submitted by Travis, who says: I made an animated visualization of the light rail infrastructure of San Francisco from 1850–to–nowish. I was wondering if you would be interested in posting! Transit Maps says: I sure would be, Travis! This is a great 15-minute video that succinctly outlines the rise and fall of rail-based street transit in San Francisco, Oakland and even Marin County. The sheer number of competing companies in the early years is quite […]

Project: Prototype U.S. Highways Shield (1926), Digital Recreation

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Miscellany

While doing research for my recent 1947 Interstate Highways map recreation, I stumbled across some scans of American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) road sign specifications dated from the 1920s. The very first page has a dimensioned drawing of the then brand new U.S. Highways shield that I find extremely interesting, as it doesn't quite match the the shield as it actually first appeared on real world signage in 1927.