All posts tagged: USA

Unofficial Future Map: Metro Denver Rapid Transit by Steve Boland

March 10, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps
Tags:

Long-time readers will know that I’m not a huge fan of Denver’s current light rail map (April 2013, 2 stars). And it seems that I’m not the only one, as Steve Boland of calurbanist.com has turned his hand to designing a new map. We’ve featured his excellent Bay Area Rapid Transit map previously (Feb. 2013, 4.5 stars). His Denver map includes all the FasTracks extensions – light rail along I-225 through Aurora, BRT lanes on […]

Photo: Boston Layers

March 7, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Miscellany
Tags:

An old Boston T map peeks out from underneath the broken remnants of a recent edition, somewhere along the Orange Line in May 2013. It’s interesting to see that while the two maps occupy the same physical space, their use of it is much different. The older, simpler map fills up its space with bold lines and large type, while the modern map is more geographically based and complex – with the addition of bus […]

Historical Map: “Future Growth and Improvement” Map for Lansing, Michigan, 1921

February 27, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

Here’s a simply beautiful map from the 1920s, showing a comprehensive proposed future plan for the city. Along with the extensive and fastidious plans for the extension of the city’s street grid (the web of red extending outwards from the core), the map also shows existing and proposed streetcars with solid and dashed thicker red lines, respectively. The map also audaciously proposes that the main line railroads be placed onto an elevated viaduct through downtown, […]

Historical Maps: Surface Trolley Lines and Elevated/Subway Lines of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, 1913

February 22, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

A superb pair of maps that depict the trolley lines (top) and elevated and subway lines (bottom) of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT) Company as they would appear after the work specified in the famous “Dual Contracts” agreement was completed. Much of today’s existing subway system came about because of this contract, as can be seen from the red (proposed) lines on the lower map. For me, the top map is even more interesting – […]

Historical Map: SEPTA – July, 1983 Station Map

February 20, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

What an amazing trash pile find! Not much more to add – the original post below pretty much says it all: Via: jukiebot/Tumblr (no longer active): This map is from the first year that SEPTA had become fully responsible for the operations of the commuter rail system in Philadelphia. I acquired this map a little while ago while wandering around West Philly with a friend where I saw a large pile of trash by the […]

Submission – Maps of the Limited Accessibility of Public Transport

February 18, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps
Tags:

Hi, you might find this interesting: we’ve recently released a project about the limited accessibility of public transport (subway + commuter trains) in New York, London and Hamburg. The results are maps with an interactive slider that let you explore how thinned out the transportation network get’s when you’re handicapped e.g. and here all the information about the project: http://mappable.info/blog/2014/2/8/accessibility Transit Maps says: The depiction of physical accessibility on transit maps of is something I’ve […]

Official Map: Bus Network of Brownsville, Texas

February 18, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

A strong entry into the Transit Maps Hall of Shame from Brownsville, Texas, with this map that depicts the Brownsville Urban System (or “BUS” — I see what they did there). Where to start with this awfulness? Probably with the graduated blue background that causes visual dissonance (that shimmering edge when colours clash horribly) with just about everything else on the map, especially the red street name labels! It also makes the underlying grey road network […]

Historical Map: Southern Pacific “Red Electric” Tracks in Downtown Portland, c. 1920

February 14, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

Scanned from the book “The Red Electrics: Southern Pacific’s Oregon Interurbans” by Tom Dill and Walter Grande. This handsome map shows the routing of the Southern Pacific’s electric interurban trains through downtown Portland from their northern terminus at Union Station. These trains, popularly known as the “Red Electrics” after their distinctive carriages, ran from Portland all the way down the Willamette Valley as far as Corvallis, 85 miles distant. Service started in 1914, extended to […]

Submission – Unofficial MARTA (Atlanta, Georgia) Map by Andrew Whited

February 12, 2014
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps
Tags:

Now this I like! Part of an overall identity project for MARTA that Andrew completed, here’s his stylish revision of the system map (I reviewed the official one way, way back in October 2011, giving it a pretty generous 3 stars). The MARTA system isn’t that complex – essentially only having two intersecting trunk lines with a couple of branches – so simplifying it down and abstracting it like this works really well. The slightly […]