Submitted by Zeroplate, who says: I was in Fukuoka this summer and couldn’t help but admire the icons that the subway lines used to mark each station. Some like the elephant and the ramen bowl tied clearly to local attractions. Others pointed to historical or geographical notes about the city. Still others I never figured out. Since each station in the main part of town was labeled with kanji, hiragana, Roman letters, and an icon, […]
Submitted by Bruce Englehardt, who says: It’s been a while since your last review of the St. Louis MetroLink map (Dec. 2011, a generous 3 stars), and it has since been updated. Of note is the new Gateway Arch symbol and redundant labels. The labeling for stations seems more consistent overall and they’ve retained the parking labels (though now with colors that could be confused with connecting lines/services). Transit Maps says: Judging by the PDF’s […]
This small cafe on Fifth Avenue in Portland is housed in one of the last remaining bus shelters from the pre-2007 transit mall, and (awesomely) still retains the maps and informational signage of that vintage. To the left is the transit mall directory, featuring the last iteration of Portland’s icon-based route grouping – a beaver for routes to the southeast, a leaf for southern routes, a rose for southwest routes, and a deer for those […]
A fascinating look at the same part of the new Art.Lebedev Studios-designed Moscow transit map – one specifically designed to show multiple modes of transportation in Moscow (all with <10 minute frequencies, I believe) instead of just the Metro. The draft version is via Jarrett Walker’s website, while the final map comes straight from the horse’s mouth at the Art.Lebedev Studios website. At first glance, they appear almost identical, but it’s the tiny little adjustments […]
Question: What do you think of Sound Transit’s station icons? I find them ineffective and embarrassing. And, they want opinions for new icons for new stations! You can see the survey yourself here. Answer: I talked about Sound Transit’s station icons in this review of the Link map that’s found in ST’s timetable book back in December 2012. Like you, I’m not particularly impressed by them. I think they’re overly detailed and they reproduce terribly […]
If you’re going to use icons for each of your stations, as Mexico City does, then why not make them nice and big and simply arrange them in the correct order? More from Wikipedia on the iconography of the Mexico City Metro: Each station is identified by a minimalist logo related to the name of the station or the area around it. This is because, at the time of the first line’s opening, the illiteracy […]
