All posts tagged: Washington DC

Fantasy Map: Washington Commanders 2023 “Season Map”

May 11, 2023
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Posted yesterday on the Commanders’ Twitter account, here’s a Washington Metro-themed map of the team’s 2023 season. It basically just places the team’s opponents for the year on a vaguely US-shaped map using some Metro iconography and colours and calls it a day. It’s superficially fun and adorable, but part of me wishes there was more meaning behind the choice of lines – perhaps grouping teams by the division they play in or something? Still, […]

Official Map: Washington, DC Metrorail with Silver Line, 2022

September 23, 2022
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Thanks to everyone on Twitter alerting me to this new map! While there’s a lot of Washington, DC content on the blog, I haven’t fully reviewed the official WMATA map since 2013, so this revision seems like a good time to look at again. First off – let’s set it out of our system, everyone… SILVER LINE! SILVER LINE! Finally extending all the way out to Dulles Airport and Ashburn, and surely opening any time […]

Fantasy Map: Capital Monorail, Washington DC (1960s) by Michael Tyznik

April 7, 2020
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I’m not quite sure how I missed this one when Michael posted it to Twitter back at the beginning of March, because it’s really quite wonderful. It seems to be based on a 1959 proposal by O. Roy Chalk – the then owner of D.C. Transit – for a monorail system. Chalk considered traditional rail as obsolete, while monorail represented the future: “beautiful, silent-operating… suspended on graceful pylons for the most part.” You can read […]

Submission – Fantasy Map: Greater Northeast Corridor Maglev by Adam Susaneck

December 9, 2019
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Submitted by Adam, who says: These are two maps I made for a class where I’m proposing a trans-national maglev through what I’m calling the “Greater Northeast Corridor.” Totally unrealistic, I know, but I’d love to get your opinion on the map! Transit Maps says: Oh, I do like this, Adam! When you have proposed travel times of just 18 minutes between Philadelphia and New York (as just one example), the rapid transit diagram design […]

Official Yet Unofficial Map: TriMet System Map in the Style of the Washington, DC Metro Map

January 15, 2019
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OMG. I’m in hysterics over here. TriMet just posted a new system map — that they themselves made — that’s a note-perfect homage to the Washington, DC Metro system map. Just look at this work of art! It’s got thick route lines, tightly-set Helvetica, lush green parks, freeways and rivers. About the only thing missing are icons for the big tourist spots, like Powells Books or the Japanese Garden or Big Pink. Of course, TriMet […]

Submission – Fantasy Map: Integrated Rail Diagram of Washington, DC and Baltimore by Chris Smere

October 18, 2018
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Submitted by Chris, who says: This is one of my latest works: an integrated rail diagram for the Baltimore and Washington DC areas. The style is inspired by Vignelli’s subway maps from the 70s. There are no intentional geographic references. I have tried to show all rail services – heavy, light rail and streetcar – in the same manner (all strokes are of the same thickness). Station indicators are different depending on service/transportation mode (circle = metro, subway, square = light […]

Project: 1973 Vignelli D.C. Metro Concepts Digital Recreation

May 16, 2018
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Readers of Transit Maps will know that I recently featured some awesome concept artwork by Massimo Vignelli for the Washington DC Metro map that was created as part of an unsuccessful bid for the map’s contract in the early 1970s. (See the posts here and here). Interestingly, the Vignelli Archives – the source of the material – made a great deal about these being “new” discoveries, unearthed for the first time in nearly 40 years. […]

Historical Maps: Vignelli Washington DC Concepts, 1973 – Part 2

May 11, 2018
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vignellicenter: Yesterday we shared some newly uncovered Vignelli designs for the Washington DC Metro subway system. And you were so excited about that we couldn’t resist sharing a few more related items.  Although Massimo Vignelli, while at Unimark International, designed the signage for the Washington DC Metro subway in 1968, he didn’t design the map (which was designed by Lance Wyman). But we recently uncovered a variety of ideas mocked up on these presentation boards.  […]

Submission – Official Map: Tysons Corner, Virginia Bus Transit Options Map

March 7, 2017
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Submitted by Dan Reed, who says: Tysons Corner, Virginia is the archetypal suburban edge city and as traffic becomes unbearable, officials are hustling to get people on transit, particularly the new Silver Line with four local stops. The owners of Tysons Corner Center, one of the nation’s biggest malls and a tourist attraction in its own right, seem to have made this “spider map” showing all of the bus and rail service to and from […]

Could a Tweak to the DC Metro Map Fix Overcrowding?

February 22, 2017
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Here’s a quick link to an article in the Washington Post by Martine Powers about a study that shows how tinkering with Washington, DC’s Metrorail map influences rider’s perceptions of the system and which path they should take to reach their final destination. In the image above, for example, the Blue Line has been altered to look less desirable than the Yellow Line when coming into DC from the south… and in testing, there was […]