All posts tagged: streetcar

Interactive Map: Archaeology of the Pacific Electric, Los Angeles by The Militant Angeleno

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Historical Maps, Visualizations

Here’s an absolutely superb piece of interactive mapping that overlays the routes of the Pacific Electric streetcar system (the “Red Cars”) onto a modern Google aerial map of the greater Los Angeles area. That’s interesting enough by itself, but this map goes further, and pinpoints the still-extant remnants of this once-great network – stations, uncovered sections of old track, power substations, railway bridges and more – and has photographs from many of these locations. It’s wonderfully […]

Book Review: “Transit Maps of the World”, 2015 Revised Edition by Mark Ovenden

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Gift Guide, Reviews

First published in the United Kingdom as Metro Maps of the World in 2003, this book has long been an indispensable reference book for graphic designers, train aficionados, cartographers, and geeks alike. However, its last major revision was in 2007 – and much has changed in the world of transit map design since then. More transit systems, new maps, revised maps, digital and web-based maps, the rise of the amateur map designer and more. Like […]

Official “Map”: Portland Streetcar Conceptual Diagram

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Official Maps

While I may be undecided about certain elements of the new official Portland Streetcar map, I do quite like this simple little diagram that can be found on their website. With a minimum of fuss, it shows the two new loop lines, the two bridges they cross over the Willamette River on and the four distinct neighbourhoods that they link together. Okay, so the NS Line looks a little vestigial, but let’s let the loop […]

Official Map: Portland Streetcar, 2015

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Official Maps

Amidst all the hoopla surrounding the opening of the new MAX light rail Orange Line, it’s easy to forget that Portland’s streetcar is now also running over the new Tilikum Crossing bridge. They’ve taken this opportunity to rework their system map to bring it more in line with their new branding – check out the rather nice new logo at the top left of the map, which doesn’t look half bad on the streetcars themselves. […]

Fantasy Map: San Francisco Muni Metro in the Style of the New York Subway Map

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Fantasy Maps, Mash-Up Maps

Created by DeviantArt member Maphead354, this is pretty spot-on, right down to the MTA-styled “MUNI” logo and condensed serif font for park names. Of course, the letter designations for lines at every single station starts to look a bit silly with so few lines, but that’s part of the fun of the mash-up, I guess. Amusingly, just like in New York, other rail systems get relegated to thin blue ticked route lines. In NY, it’s […]

Future Map – Regional Transit for Atlanta, Georgia by Jason Lathbury

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Future Maps, Unofficial Maps

I noticed a spike in my web stats coming from the Curbed Atlanta website over the last couple of days… so I traced them back to this interesting map of a hypothetical future Atlanta. It turns out that the hits to my site were because one commenter had volunteered the map to my “Hall of Shame”, complete with a link. Ouch.  Now, while I don’t think that the map is anywhere near awful enough to enter […]

Submission – River Rail Streetcar, Little Rock, Arkansas by Peter Dovak

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Unofficial Maps

Submitted by Peter, who says: Ages ago, after you posted a tutorial on highway interchanges on your McKinney Ave streetcar map, I was inspired to try and practice the technique on what ended up being a very very similar project–definitely too similar to take any credit for. I left it incomplete for so long because it was just uncomfortably reminiscent of your map to finish, but for the sake of completion and appreciation for the […]

New Official Map: UTA Rail Services, Salt Lake City, 2015

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Official Maps

Sent my way by Mike Christensen. Long-time readers of Transit Maps will know that I have long deplored the abysmal quality of the UTA’s rail services map. I first reviewed it way back in July 2012 (where I awarded it one measly star), and things have only gone downhill from there.  By April 2013, I was calling it “the most embarrassing transit map in the U.S.” and gave it a big, fat ZERO. I basically pleaded for […]