All posts tagged: light rail

Future Map: “ProjectConnect” Central Texas High-Capacity Transit Vision

June 27, 2013
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I’ve featured a couple of dodecalinear maps recently (both for Amsterdam – here and here), but this future transit map for Austin and San Antonio has got ‘em covered. It’s a hexadecalinear map. That is, there are sixteen possible directions for a route line to head from any given point. Interestingly however, the angles between the route lines aren’t evenly arranged. Instead of 0 – 22.5 – 45 – 67.5 – 90 degree arrangement, this […]

Official Map: Everything Old is New Again for the Madrid Metro

June 3, 2013
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Over the weekend, Madrid rolled out a new map for its comprehensive Metro and light rail system. After six long and controversial years, the previous map (March 2012, 2.5 stars) – with everything reduced to severe 90-degree angles and very little spatial relationship to the real world – has been consigned to the dustbin. In its place, a new map that looks strangely familiar. The design of the map has returned in-house and Metro’s designers […]

Historical Map: Tyne and Wear Metro, England, c. 2000

May 28, 2013
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Showing the then-proposed extension to Sunderland, which opened in 2002. Interestingly, the 60-degree angled section running through Newcastle is flipped the other way compared to the current map (Nov. 2011, 3.5 stars). I’d say the change was mainly made to accommodate the Calvert typeface used on the modern day map: it’s far more attractive than the Futura Condensed on display here, but a lot wider. Without the flip, the labels for South Gosforth and Four […]

Historical Map: London Connections, 1988

May 10, 2013
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The reverse side of the British Rail Network SouthEast map, showing the detailed view of the area surrounding London. While this map is designed in a very similar style (at the same time, by the same people) to the regional map, I feel it’s slightly less successful for a few reasons. The inclusion of the London Underground introduces many more colors to the map, which instantly makes it feel much busier. After using all these […]

Unofficial Map – Future Minneapolis & St. Paul Transit Map by Kyril Negoda

May 1, 2013
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mappingtwincities: It’s here!Future Minneapolis & St. Paul Transit Map After several months in development, I’m proud to present to you the Future Twin Cities Transit Map. A comprehensive summary of current rapid transit proposals, this version shows all existing and future light rail & BRT lines as well as select major bus routes, commuter rail and HSR connections. Detailed summary of transit improvements available at MetroTransit’s homepage. In 2030, Twin Cities are expected to join […]

Lessons in how NOT to adapt your map to a different shape, Denver edition

April 30, 2013
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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 […]

Official Map Update: Denver RTD Light Rail West Line, 2013

April 26, 2013
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Transit Maps reviewed Denver’s light rail map way back in October 2011. We weren’t too impressed with it then, and nothing much has changed with this new edition that marks today’s opening of the new (aqua) West Line out to Golden. The map itself has had to change orientation from portrait to landscape to fit the new route in, which raises the question of how it’s going to fit into existing fittings on trains and […]

Unofficial Map: UTA TRAX and Frontrunner – a plea for good transit map design

April 17, 2013
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Following on from yesterday’s post, here’s an unofficial map of Salt Lake City’s TRAX and FrontRunner rail system. I’ve feautured another unofficial map of this system previously (December 2012, 3.5 stars), but this one is interesting because it contains a message seemingly aimed at the UTA, almost pleading for better map design. It reads: This map was created by CLF as an attempt to show how a UTA rail map can be laid out clearly […]

Salt Lake City UTA TRAX and FrontRunner: now officially the most embarrassing transit maps in the U.S.

April 16, 2013
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Seriously. Do they even care at all any more? With the opening of the new TRAX light rail Green Line extension to the airport, the UTA has updated their website with new maps. Well, only partially, which is bad enough in itself. If you go to the System Maps page, you still get a combined pre-extension TRAX/FrontRunner map (reviewed here, Dec 2012, half a star). However, if you click on the TRAX or FrontRunner icons, […]

Unofficial Map: Dallas-Fort Worth Rail Transit by Gabe Tiberius Columbo

April 16, 2013
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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 […]