Photo: Seeking Enlightenment
Great title, even better photo. Source: pablo.raw/Flickr
All posts tagged: USA
Historical Map: Los Angeles Pacific Electric Relief Map, 1920
A fascinating snapshot in time of the full extent of the great Pacific Electric Railway Company’s operations in Los Angeles and southern California. The famous “Red Cars”, a combination of streetcars and interurban light rail spanned vast distances at a time before the car had truly entered the American way of life. Within 30 years, most of this system – the “largest electric railway system in the world” – had been replaced by motorcoach services […]
Official Map: Chicago CTA “L” Commuter Rail, 2011
Chicago’s street grid is so incredibly regular that this map seems to be a rectilinear diagram. It’s only after observing some odd little twists and turns in the route lines that you realise that this is actually a fairly geographically accurate map – so much so that the downtown Loop is represented in an detail inset because it would otherwise appear too small to decipher. Even the station names pretty much conform to the grid […]
Official Map: MARTA Rail System, Atlanta, Georgia, 2011
This map is a great example of how it’s attention to the little details that separate the great transit maps and the merely good. At first glance, this map has all the elements of the best: a clean layout, an excellent and consistently applied set of icons for subsidiary information (parking, restrooms, lost and found, etc. – although any information about disabled access to the system is strangely lacking), and good informational hierarchy (note how […]
Official Map: Buffalo Light Rail, New York, 2011
Having showcased some excellent transit map design, it’s time to see what happens when it all goes horribly wrong. This monstrosity is the official map – available on the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority’s website – for the light rail system of Buffalo, New York. My eyes hurt. Have we been there? No. What we like: It tells us where the trains stop. That is all. What we don’t like: Where to begin? The hilarious usage […]
Historical Map: San Francisco Market Street Railway Company Routes, 1931
An absolutely stunning overhead perspective drawing of San Francisco in this old cable car company map of services. The Golden Gate bridge does not exist yet, and fares to any part of the city (including transfers) are just five cents. Have we been there? Yes, but the remaining cable cars are now just a sad, touristy reminder of what there once was. What we like: Just about everything. The draftsmanship, and detailing is extraordinary – […]
Official Map: Denver RTD Light Rail, 2011
Here’s a transit map that can’t seem to make up its mind whether it is a rectilinear diagram or a geographically accurate map, and it ends up paying a price for that indecision. Overlaying the routes on a city-wide street grid can work well (see the Barcelona map posted previously), but here it seems to force the routes to be subservient to their geography, rather than the other way around. The labelling of the roads […]
Unofficial Map: MBTA Commuter Rail System by Robert O’Connell
This is possibly the best transit diagram I have seen submitted to Wikipedia. Lovely, minimalistic design with bright, eye-catching colours and good typography. No geography at all, which is actually appropriate for a heavy rail system like this – used most by commuters who travel the length of their line from their home station (on a spoke) to the city (hub). Have We Been There? I’ve been to Boston, but haven’t travelled on the commuter […]
Fantasy Map: The Oregon Trail by Guy Douglas
Nicely done fantasy map showing the route of the famous Oregon Trail. Very much in the style of H.C. Beck’s famous London Underground diagram, but with some lovely humorous touches. Have we been there? Kind of. Living in Oregon means I’ve driven or hiked along long stretches of the old trail. Wish I could catch the train there, though. What we like: Lovely homage to the original source, fantastic sense of humour – “hire Indian […]
Washington Metro Diagram: My Last Word
This is it. My final take on a redesigned Washington, D.C. Metro Map. This is my third major revision of a project that began in February of last year, and won the People’s Choice Award in the Greater Greater Washington “Redesign the Metro Map” contest earlier this year. I’ve taken time away from this diagram to work on a few other projects recently, but the release of Lance Wyman’s draft diagram has inspired me to […]