Requested by Mr. Grafix, among others. Public transportation in LA is making a comeback, decades after the last streetcar line was ripped up. At the heart of this renaissance is the Metro system, an odd combination of light rail (Blue, Green and Yellow lines), heavy rail (Red and Purple lines) and Bus Rapid Transit (Orange and Silver lines). The new Expo Line is also nearing completion of Phase I and will be showing up on […]
Opened in 1980, the Tyne and Wear Metro is the first of Britain’s modern light rail systems. It also benefits from a very strong corporate identity with the slab serif Calvert typeface (named after its creator and one of the original identity designers in 1977, the famous Margaret Calvert) as a core component. The typeface is used extensively throughout the system, even as wall-sized station names as seen in the photo of Monument Station. Taken […]
Related to the parabolic map of the Moscow Metro, here’s a unique take on the Washington, DC Metro – as a spiral. A visually compelling image, and great at showing links between routes, but not actually that useful as a map. Have we been there? No. What we like: Amazingly creative way of re-imagining the system. Looks fantastic! Shows links between routes at transfer stations very effectively. What we don’t like: Absolute lack of geography […]
Now this I like. This map takes Moscow’s famous Circle Line and straightens it out completely: all other lines then attach to it parabolically (becoming curved when before they were represented as a straight line). Great work, even if not that practical for real-world use. Source: bifurcafe/Flickr – link no longer active
I really appreciate transit maps that combine different modes of transit, and this map does just that – showing Metro, light rail, trams and commuter rail in a very clean, restrained manner. Coloured route lines (blue, orange and green) set the dense and important Metro network apart from the subsidiary light rail, tram and commuter rail routes, which are shown in grey and thin black lines. Zone information is displayed through a chilly looking cyan […]
A few years old now – Sydney’s Chatswood to Epping rail line is missing – but a clever idea very well executed by Saatchi and Saatchi Australia. Station names are replaced by those of music artists. Source: AdGoodness – link no longer active
If you’ve reached this page from a search engine hit, please note that this is not the official NJ Transit page, but an independent review of the map as it stood in 2011. If you want to see the current official map, then follow this link [PDF]. If you love transit maps and diagrams, then please stick around and read the review – and more – on this site! This morning, an interesting tweet came […]
Further to yesterday’s post, here’s a new unofficial map of the Paris Metro that’s been hot on the interwebs over the last few days. Unlike the official RATP diagram, this version places all the stations in their exact geographical locations, although I suspect the route lines have been tweaked between those points to create more graceful curves than in reality. Also unlike the official map, it doesn’t attempt to show tram services or mainline train […]
If you visit Paris, you need to use the Metro to get around, so it’s a good thing that its map is up to the task. It took Paris a long time to come around to a diagrammatic approach (Harry Beck created two versions on spec, but both were rejected), and earlier diagrams were not as successful as this – one had all vertical lines set at a jaunty 15-degree angle, which made the whole […]
A beautiful example of an abstracted rectilinear diagram – everything is evenly spaced, with subtle curves and a lovely complementary rounded typeface. The colours in this diagram work wonderfully well, with “traditional” route colours of Blue, Yellow, Green and Red being given a pastel twist and lovely icons that fit in with Lisbon’s maritime history perfectly. An excellent bi-lingual key and icons pack this map with useful information and all type is set horizontally. The […]
