Submitted by Neil Connolly, who says: This is a map of the local train network of Ortenau (the German county next to Strasbourg in France) as it appears on the train itself. As you can see, it runs trains into France too. While I very much appreciate the network (access to the Black Forest, Offenburg, etc., from France, where I live) the map has always annoyed me, but I can’t figure out exactly why. What […]
Here’s a photo from long-time correspondent Matt’ Johnson of the in-car strip map for the just-opened-yesterday Atlanta Streetcar. I sort of get a Transport for London/Tube Map vibe from it, and that’s a good thing in my eyes. Simple, clean, bold, easy to read, and it doesn’t try to over-complicate or “dress up” what is a very simple loop system. It’s not completely perfect: all the station names are left-aligned and aligned to the left […]
Submitted by Rob, who says: The TTC have decided to include a streetcar map inside the new streetcars when they start rolling out at the end of this month. What do you think of the map? With out any actual street grid information it doesn’t seem very helpful since it gives you zero context of where each route is in the street system. Transit Maps says: I think Rob is being a little unfair when […]
Submission and photo by Chris Bastian. Does a decent job of showing a large and disjointed network in a limited space, although it’s not exactly stylish. Notable for its interesting “circle” and “half-circle” terminus stations, as well as its use of double-headed arrow station markers to show that trams stop in both directions there. As the tram network basically circumnavigates the historical centre of Rome, that part is basically compressed so much that it’s barely […]
Submitted by Nathan Bakken, who says: Hi, I am an Urban Studies major at UMN, and while riding the Blue line today I noticed the new transit map for our light rail system. thought i would share. Transit Maps says: Looks like the Twin Cities’ Metro Transit is gearing up for the opening of the new Green Line light rail nice and early! The line – which will link the downtown areas of Minneapolis and […]
A lesson in how not to add station labels to a strip map: type at five different angles makes things incredibly hard to read. Also not to be recommended for legibility is the all-caps treatment of station names. This would work much better if the route line was pushed to the top of the strip, with all stations spaced equally and type set at one consistent angle across the entire diagram. Source: A2DAC1985/Flickr
Submitted by long-time contributor, Dmitry Darsavilidze, here’s a brand new strip map for Metro Line 6. Designed by Art.Lebedev Studios, and based on their contest-winning system map, this carries on the good work of that design. The strip map is simple and uncluttered, and has nice, large, easy-to-read type (a failing of many strip maps, which often have type to small to be easily read from any sort of distance). Information is presented consistently – […]
Following on from the Lisbon commuter rail strip map feautured recently, here’s another excellent example, this time from Prague. Design-wise, it fits in well with the standard Metro/tram map, but is remarkable for its incredibly effective use of space. The three route lines fit beautifully into the space, and the interchanges between the lines in the centre of the map are simply gorgeous. The inclusion of icons for popular landmarks/attractions is welcome and useful (as […]
When I reviewed the new West Line Denver LTD light rail map (April 2013, 2 stars), I wondered how the new landscape format would work on trains and on station fittings. Well, one half of that question has been answered: this is what it looks like on the trains, and it ain’t pretty. Basically, they’ve just taken the map and compressed it vertically to squeeze it into the allocated space. The loop around the city, which […]
What goes on underneath the printed map. The lights for the future Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension stations are already in place in the upper left of the map. Fortunately, the map hasn’t been stolen by someone to reveal these inner workings: it’s simply been moved to the left. This being Toronto, however, it’s probably only a matter of minutes until someone makes off with it to hang on their bedroom/dorm wall. EDIT: As ytomatoboi points out, […]
