All posts tagged: USA

Historical Map: Baltimore United Railways & Electric Co., 1929

January 7, 2022
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

A charming map of streetcar services – and a few of those newfangled gas buses! – in central Baltimore from 1929. Points of interest are clearly illustrated, and the map is surrounded by vignettes of life and architecture in this “historic, pleasant, thriving city”. A prominent cartouche proclaims that “STREET CARS and BUSES in Baltimore go wherever there is anything to see…” and little streetcars have been drawn running along major thoroughfares. As a side […]

Submission – Unofficial Map: NYC Ferries by Evelyn Fischer

November 1, 2021
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Evelyn, who says: Hello! I just thought I’d send you my attempt at making the NYC Ferry network a bit less intimidating to navigate. While many of the issues are with the network itself (the stopping patterns are absolutely bizarre), I’ve always thought the official map made the network far harder to navigate than it should be. So here’s my attempt to fix that! Transit Maps says: Like Evelyn, I’ve never really been […]

Submission – Sea-Tac Airport People Mover Diagram, 2021

October 27, 2021
comments 2
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Chris, who says: Sea-Tac has three inter-terminal people mover systems. They’ve introduced a new system map with color routing designations. Transit Maps says: Boy, this diagram makes really hard work out of something fairly simple. The colour-coding is fine if it helps people find the right train to get to their terminal, though I personally never had a problem with understanding that the North train loop took me to the North satellite terminal. […]

Submission – Official Map: Green Line Route Map at New SLC Airport Station

October 26, 2021
comments 2
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Mike, who says: The construction of the new terminal at Salt Lake City International Airport necessitated constructing a new light rail station, which opened today. One interesting new thing for UTA at the station is a line map. While these have existed on board UTA’s TRAX light rail and FrontRunner commuter rail trains for a while, this is the first time they have used this kind of map at a station. I do […]

Project: Electric Streetcars and Interurbans of Yakima, Washington, 1920

October 25, 2021
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps, My Transit Maps, Prints Available
Tags:

The third in my series of maps depicting electric streetcar networks of the Pacific Northwest, one that both builds on my previous maps of Spokane and Portland and adds something new to the mix: geography. The full project description follows, but you can view the map below or click here to view it in a full-screen window. At first sight, the Yakima streetcar and interurban network may not look quite as impressive as the other […]

Submission – Official Map: San Diego Trolley Diagram, 2021

October 22, 2021
comment 1
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Robert, who says: I’ve always thought that San Diego’s “Trolley” map to be pretty bad, with various clashing angles, line icons and brand names (ugh) that don’t add anything (“Sycuan” is a casino, and the Blue LIne is named UC San Diego because they’re a sponsor, not because the line extension will go there). Only ONE landmark is noted, the baseball park downtown. The only geographical feature indicated is the international border, which […]

Submission – Official Map: Sound Transit Link Northgate Extension Line Map, 2021

September 14, 2021
comment 1
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Chris Bastian, who says: In anticipation of this month’s service extension to Northgate [Opening day is October 2! – Cam], Sound Transit is rolling out new maps on the Link rail system. Now tagged as the “1 Line” (Green) in anticipation of the future East Link extension. Transit Maps says: I think this our first look at Sound Transit’s new design style in the out in the wild, and it’s a pretty decent […]

Project: A Map of Electric Streetcars in Portland, Oregon, 1915

August 22, 2021
comments 8
Filed Under:
Historical Maps, My Transit Maps, Prints Available
Tags:

Here’s a map that’s been a long time coming, and one that I think has been worth the wait. I’ve wanted to make a transit map of historical streetcar routes in my adopted home town of Portland, Oregon for at least five years now, but it’s always seemed like a very daunting task. The success of my historical Spokane streetcar map from earlier this year finally gave me the tools I needed to get this […]

Video: History of the MBTA’s Rapid Transit Map

May 21, 2021
comment 1
Filed Under:
Miscellany, Official Maps
Tags:

I came across this on YouTube the other day, and thought it was definitely worth sharing. It’s quite long (clocking in at well over an hour if you include the Q&A session at the end), but there’s a lot of great insight into both the history of the MBTA map, and of Ken’s personal journey designing the map over the years. Of particular interest is how the whole redesign via a crowd-sourced contest a few […]

Submission – Historical Map: M6 Bus Route Sign, New York, c. 1975

May 13, 2021
comments 4
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

Submitted by Shaul Picker, who says: I have a Flickr and save these images from eBay listings and elsewhere. This is a sign from the former New York City Department of Traffic showing the M6 bus route, which was eliminated in 2010. Transit Maps says: What a great little map! While the M6 may have been eliminated in 2010, this map is much older, as evidenced by both the very 1970s typography, the use of […]