All posts tagged: USA

Historical Map: MBTA Keychain, c. 1978-1979

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Submitted by dinnerkettle, who says: Inherited this MBTA keychain from my aunt recently. There’s no exact date on it, but it was definitely made before the red line got extended past Harvard and before some other stops got renamed. Transit Maps says: What a great piece of transit map-related ephemera! The best I can date it is after 1980 (when Braintree opened; an arrow points to it at the bottom right of the map), but […]

Submission – Unofficial Map: Portland, Oregon Rail Network by Taylor Gibson

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When Taylor sent through his aerial photo map of Portland the other day, he also submitted this very interesting isometric map of the city’s rail network (MAX, WES and streetcar). Tyler is a self-proclaimed “total newbie at making transit maps”, but this is definitely a pretty solid effort. Highly reminiscent of this isometric map of Stuttgart (Oct 2011, 5 stars), the 30-degree-angled route lines allow station labels to be set horizontally without clashing with each […]

Submission – Aerial Photo Transit Map of Portland, Oregon

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Submitted to the Transit Maps Facebook page by Taylor Gibson. While nowhere near as complex as the New York system featured previously, it’s still an interesting look at a successful rail transit system. For those unfamiliar with Portland, the thicker lines (Yellow, Green, Blue and Red – shown here as pink for visual clarity, I think) are the MAX light rail, while the thinner aqua and lime green lines are the Portland Streetcar, which has […]

Submission – Aerial Photo of New York City with Rail Lines Superimposed 

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Fantastic work from Transit Maps reader Arnorian showing the New York Subway, PATH and NJ Transit Lines on top of an aerial photograph of central New York City. When you view a transit system like New York’s through the limitations of a small printed or on-line map (be it the official map, the Vignelli diagram or even the hybrid Kick Map), it’s easy to forget just how big and complex it is. A representation like […]

Photo – Historical Map: Pacific Electric Strip Map

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Submitted by Sam Huddy, who says: This is a strip map of the Santa Monica Air Line that appears on several station platforms along the Expo Line in Los Angeles. As far as I know, this idea is original to the Metro era. As a work of art, the stops are unlabeled, and typical of the PE, it’s unclear what makes some stops “major” or “minor.” Transit Maps says: This is actually a lovely little […]

Historical Map: New York Metropolitan Transit Authority 1968 Plan for Rail Improvement and Transit Expansion

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Courtesy of the new and already indispensable hyperrealcartography Tumblr, here’s a simply stunning set of New York transit planning maps from the late 60s. In this modern age of computer-aided map design, a lot of time can be spent trying to digitally replicate this watercolour look, but it’s hard to beat the real thing (although Stamen’s lovely map tiles do a pretty good job!). The north pointer – successfully and cleverly integrating the then-brand-new MTA […]

Unofficial Map: The Noland Trail Transit Map, Newport News, Virginia

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jonahsmaps: While I was working the original version of the Noland Trail Map, I had the thought to do an alternative edition of the map for fun. Enter, the Noland Trail Transit Map. Transit map versions of existing non-transit locations have been fairly popular this year, and i challenged myself to make one in ArcMap. Overall, i love the look of the final product, and i’ll throw a plug over to Transit Maps where i spent […]

Historical Map: New York City Transit System Morning Peak Flow, 1954

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A beautiful old map showing scheduled morning peak service (both actual service and absolute maximum capacity) into Manhattan below 60th Street. The thicker the lines, the greater the service – much like modern service frequency maps! Being 1954, the subway is still divided into its three separately run divisions: BMT (Yellow), IRT (Blue) and IND (Red). Source: Ward Maps’ Facebook Page