Berlin’s troubled post-World War II history led to a fascinating dual history for transit in that city, divided into East and West sectors. This West Berlin U-Bahn map from 1977 – at the height of the Cold War – shows that division in a stark, but also curiously understated fashion. The infamous Berlin Wall that completely divided the city is prosaically referred to as a Sektorengrenze, or “sector boundary”. All U-Bahn lines are still shown, […]
Here’s another example of a metro map overlaid on a city’s street grid – this time from Santiago, Chile. This system has some marvellous innovations, with a bike sharing program (BiciMetro) and libraries (BiblioMetro) integrated at many stations, but the map somewhat fails to live up to those modern, forward-thinking ideas. Have we been there? No. What we like: Clean layout, with large easy-to-read (if not particularly stylish) text. The roads are given the right […]
I really, really don’t know what to think about this map. On one hand, it looks amazing, with a solid and well applied design theme. On the other, it’s so rich with information (with around 200 Metro-run routes plus those of Municipal bus operators!) that’s it’s almost impossible to make anything out clearly. Maybe this is a case of form over function, or maybe it needs to be viewed at it’s actual poster dimensions (which, […]
What’s that, Green Line? Yes, I do think you look wonderful when all your stations are shown! A work in progress screen shot of my Boston MBTA “T” map redesign. And this isn’t even the coolest part. Stay tuned!
It’s always fun to do a comparison between old and new maps, and we have a great opportunity with this very recent rebranding of the Glasgow Subway (the third-oldest subway system in the world at 115 years of age, after the London Underground and the Budapest Metro). A deceptively simple system, the Subway consists of a single loop with 15 stations — trains run clockwise on the Outer Circle, and anti-clockwise on the Inner Circle. […]
Uncovered at Orient Heights station, photo from 2009. Note “Washington” station instead of Downtown Crossing, the entirely different alignment of the Orange Line to Forest Hills, no Red Line extension to Quincy and Braintree (and it ends at Harvard in the other direction). The “A” Green Line to Watertown is still in service, and the “E” goes all the way to Arborway. Love the elegant simplicity to this, and the lovely crimson red used for […]
Source: M.Crescentini/Flickr – link no longer active
Requested by pomme-poire-peche Montréal’s Metro map instantly stands out from the crowd by virtue of its black background – a feature only rarely seen in transit maps. Although the idea of a subway serving Montréal was first tabled in the early 1900s, it wasn’t until 1966 that it finally opened. Have we been there? No. What we like: Graphically bold and clean. Black background and subdued colour for the waterways really allow the thick, colourful […]
I haven’t really looked at the Boston MBTA map since I was there for a few days in the middle of 2008, but I certainly don’t remember it looking as bad as this. I’ve always been mildly annoyed by the fact that not all the stations on the surface street sections of the Green Line are labelled, but my overall impression back then was of a solid, well-designed map. Just a few short years later, […]
A bit of whimsy for you today from Reddit, brought to my attention by Twitter user @GordonWerner. The “L” has been flipped both horizontally and vertically, then rotated to fit Manhattan’s street grid, but the scaling is accurate. It looks like The Loop is placed in the area directly below Central Park. A few things from this: it’s actually kind of scary how well this fits; and it’s astounding just how dense the New York […]
