Submitted by Joshua Fan, who says: This is an official map of Seattle’s Central Link light rail line, which opened in 2009. It appears in the official guide of all of Sound Transit’s services, which can be found in this PDF on the Sound Transit website. Frankly, I am quite disappointed in this map: it tries to both diagrammatic and geographical, but fails on both counts (which is a common mistake that you have pointed […]
Brought to my attention by Garrett Smith when he submitted the abomination that is the new official UTA map, here’s a completely different take on Salt Lake City’s rail system from Flickr user H4vok_13. This map is by no means perfect, but it’s an absolute paragon of simplicity and clean design compared to the real thing. What we like: Streamlined, simplified route lines that expand the city centre and compress the outlying areas work wonders […]
Today, the FrontRunner commuter rail system opens for revenue service south of Salt Lake all the way down to Provo, and there’s a new version of the map to reflect this new service. I reviewed a previous version of this map back in July, and I didn’t have much positive to say about it then – and my opinion has not been changed with this new iteration. Quite a few people have submitted this new […]
Here’s a map that has been requested quite a few times, but I’ve held off on until now. Having lived in Sydney most of my life, I think it’s difficult to be dispassionate about something I’m so familiar with… but here goes! Have we been there? You know it! What we like: Clear and easy to understand. Different types of services are denoted well, but in a nicely understated way: grey lines with coloured ticks […]
When I reviewed the map for the Hong Kong MTR back in April, I noted that the smaller, connecting, light rail system in Hong Kong’s north west wasn’t paid much attention. As seen here, it’s a complex and comprehensive system in its own right and is definitely too detailed to co-exist on one map with the MTR system. Have we been there? No. What we like: One of the most stylised and diagrammatic maps I’ve […]
Today is the end of an era in Portland, Oregon. TriMet, under budgetary stress, has done away with the much-loved Free Rail Zone, which allowed free travel by light rail and streetcar within the “Fareless Square” area of downtown Portland and the Lloyd Center. Not too long ago, Fareless Square also applied to buses in the same area, so the writing’s been on the wall for a while. At the same time, TriMet has also […]
Reporting live from the streets of Portland, Oregon, where I’ve just noticed a new map on the ticket machine at my downtown stop. These are being rolled out in preparation for the abolition of the Free Rail Zone (and ALL fare zones!) on September 1st, and I have to say that the removal of the old multi-colored zone rings is a great improvement. The poor old streetcar still gets short shrift (now being a grey […]
One of a series of nifty advertisements for the Metro system in Valencia, Spain. This one highlights the system’s connections to the airport (via Lines 3 and 5); I’ve also seen other ones that form the shape of a shopping bag (to showcase the connections to the shopping districts of the city), and a bicycle (to indicate that bicycles can be taken on the system). These ads all tie into a previous iteration of the […]
Hot on the heels of Miami’s new Orange Line comes another one: this one belonging to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) system. This new line will eventually bring light rail to DFW airport, an essential transportation link in any large city, I feel. Have we been there? No. What we like: Relatively clean and simple compared to many American transit maps. The street grid is visible, but subsidiary to the main information. The downtown […]
After posting a photo of a vintage Cleveland RTA rapid transit map, I was curious as to what the current map looked like. Oh dear. Maybe I shouldn’t have looked. Have we been there? No. What we like: Sadly, the best thing about this map is the nicely retro-styled RTA agency logo. As for the rest… What we don’t like: Multiple angles for route lines instead of the standard 45-degrees looks messy and poorly thought […]
