All posts tagged: strip map

Design Resource: Transport for London’s “Line Diagram Standards” Guide

December 17, 2013
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Definitely worth a look to see how a major transit agency puts together a comprehensive guide to assembling consistently designed maps. The guide deals with horizontal in-car strip maps and the vertical line maps seen on platforms, but many of the principles still hold true for the design of a full transit map. Of particular interest is the relationship between the x-height of Johnston Sans and the thickness of the route lines (they’re the same). […]

Submission – New Official Moscow Metro In-Car Strip Map

December 16, 2013
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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 – […]

Submission: New Washington, DC Metro Strip Map at Pentagon City

October 22, 2013
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Submitted by Peter Dovak, who says:  Spotted a new schematic installed at Pentagon City Metro station in Washington this week. I’m not sure if this is experimental or what, but I’ve never seen such detailed line info at a station here before. Not a huge fan of the execution, though, the labels are awful skewed! Transit Maps says: In the limited space allowed here, angled station labels are pretty much the only workable option. It’s […]

Photo: Moscow Metro Line Maps

September 9, 2013
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A good example of how something that’s probably perfectly clear to locals can be totally confusing to foreign visitors. The first obstacle is obviously the Cyrillic text, which automatically makes things very tricky for non-natives. Now, I’ve spent quite a bit of time translating and cross-referencing the text here with a Moscow Metro map, and I think I’ve got it worked out — but this isn’t exactly a luxury that you would have when you’re […]

Photo – Official Map: Bucharest Metro In-Car Strip Map

July 21, 2013
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A bit blocky and utilitarian, but has some interesting elements worthy of note. Each station icon indicates the positioning of the platforms: either two separate platforms along the side, or one island platform between the tracks – very useful information to have! Because of the circular nature of the M1 (Yellow) Line, both Dristor 1 and Dristor 2 appear twice on the map, because the M1 line has been “flattened out” to appear in a […]

Photo – Official Map: Prague Metro In-Car Strip Map

July 12, 2013
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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 […]

Official Map: Commuter Rail Strip Map, Lisbon, Portugal, 2013

July 8, 2013
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A lovely above-door strip map from Portugal’s capital. By sacrificing geographical reality (only the Tagus River gives any sense of orientation), the three lines are able to be laid out for maximum clarity and legibility. The comprehensive legend has symbols for connections to the Metro, the private Fertagus commuter rail line to Setúbal, ferries, and buses. It even has a “camera” icon for stations with points of interest nearby, and a little “umbrella and beach […]

Photo – Official Map: Portland MAX Horizontal Strip Map

May 8, 2013
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The newest rolling stock used on Portland’s MAX light rail (Siemens S70 cars, known as “Type 4”) has enough room above the doors to display a horizontal version of the system map. Types 1 through 3 don’t have this space, and instead display an unwieldy portrait-oriented version of the map that bears little resemblance to geographical reality. Interestingly, this map is not the same as the official system map found on TriMet’s website or ticket machines (despite sharing […]

A Better Denver RTD Strip Map?

April 30, 2013
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People have already asked me what I’d do to make the Denver RTD strip map better. Well, here’s what I’ve come up with in five minutes flat. Even from this quick little “art director’s sketch”, I’m pretty certain that this concept would work better than the current iteration. Once a transit system is past a certain size or complexity, some level of abstraction on these narrow oddly-shaped strip maps is a necessity. Once the rider is […]