All posts tagged: USA

Photo: The Colors of Public Transit

Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Photography

I love, love, love this photo of wayfinding signage in Chicago. Anyone know which station this is? I’m guessing one of the Wabash stations on the Loop, but don’t know enough about them to narrow it down further. Edit: Knowledgeable readers have identified this sign as being at Clark/Lake station – thanks! Source: k.james/Flickr

Official Map: The Wave Bus Network, Nantucket, MA

Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps

Here’s a nice little bus network map sent my way by long time Twitter follower, Gordon Werner. Designed by Smartmaps, Inc., it shows the seasonal shuttle bus service on Nantucket Island, known as “The Wave”. Almost predictably, “Ride the Wave!” is their slogan. Is the surf even that good in Nantucket? Have we been there? No — only to the next island over, Martha’s Vineyard. What we like: Nicely executed, attractive looking bus route map […]

Photo — Historical Map: Boston Sights

Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps, Photography

Boston seems to rival only Washington, DC for old system maps being left in place at stations and on trains. This photo was taken in August of this year, but the map dates from between 2004 to 2008 (the extension of the Silver Line to City Point is the giveaway). I’d probably lean towards the earlier end of that range, due to the “Silver Line Waterfront” designation. One thing to note is how much cleaner […]

Advertisement: Barclays Center “Minutes From Everywhere”

Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Advertising

How to sell New Yorkers on a new stadium: point out they don’t have to drive to it. (Source: ad in the 2nd Avenue F train station.) The problem with doing a subway-themed ad that will appear in the actual subway itself is that it’s not allowed to look anything like the official map. So we end up with this weird Vignelli wannabe instead. However, it does get its point across quite effectively, so in […]

Fantasy Map: Grand Theft Auto IV Liberty City Subway

Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Fantasy Maps, Popular Culture

By all accounts, Grand Theft Auto IV is a pretty awesome game. However, it would seem that the game’s designers are lousy urban planners, as this has to be the most ridiculous subway layout I have ever seen. Seriously, it looks like two racetrack layouts from a 1990s video game have been superimposed on the city with some stations added at random. What is the point of the northern track between Huntington St and the […]

Historical Map: Birds-Eye View of Chicago, 1908

Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps, Prints Available

Courtesy of the always amazing Big Map Blog (you really should follow them on Twitter), here’s an incredible birds-eye view of Chicago and its elevated railways from 1908. More than anything, I love the minute attention to detail on this – smoke curls from factory chimneys, almost every tree in the city’s parks seems to be present. Of particular note is the spur line out to Union Stock Yards, the self-proclaimed “butchery capital of the […]

Unofficial Map: San Francisco BART Reductio ad Absurdum

comment 1
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps

I was reminded today of this work — one of my favourite transit map design exercises of all time from the always interesting Burrito Justice website. A ridiculously minimalist “hyperlinear” version of the BART map, it actually holds up surprisingly well as a navigational tool. Of course, something like this only works for a relatively simple system like BART. Source: comments thread of this post on the Burrito Justice site