All posts tagged: Maryland

System Maps, Mt. Washington Station, Baltimore Light Rail

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Historical Maps

An (original 1992?) outdoor signage/map/wayfinding array at Baltimore’s Mt. Washington light rail station. While the main map on the central panel shows all the current stations and branches (dating it to after 1998), it looks as though there could be some patches or stickers on top of an older map to achieve this. To be honest, I don’t know why this map has to have any curves in its route line at all: I feel […]

Official Map: MARC Commuter Rail Map, 2014

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Official Maps

Ugh. A terrible JPG of a decidedly ugly map. There’s so much to dislike about this: the blocky label type; the tiny, indecipherable symbols used for the Metro and light rail in Baltimore and the insultingly poor renditions of the logos of connecting services (WMATA, Amtrak and VRE); the ridiculously ornate and garishly coloured compass rose; the soft “glow” effect applied to the MARC routes… the list goes on. Not to mention the mistakes, like […]

Weird: The Maryland Transit Administration’s Version of the DC Metro Map

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Official Maps

Not only is the map out of date (no Rush+, no indication of the Silver Line at all), but the MTA has simply encased the official DC map in their own branding shell and then covered it in hideous and distracting callout boxes denoting their own commuter bus services. Yes, it performs a service, but – dear God! – is it ever ugly. There should be a law against this kind of thing. Source: Maryland […]

Official Map: Maryland Transit Administration Regional Transit Map, 2012

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Official Maps

Here’s a large-format multi-modal map from the Maryland Transit Authority, centered on Baltimore. Contrast it against this previously reviewed map of similar scope from the Los Angeles Metro, and it can be seen that the MTA map has got a far better balance of design and usability, and is actually a quite superb and comprehensive map. Have we been there? No. What we like: Incredibly legible for such a dense map. It shows light rail, […]