Submitted by Leo, who says:

Hello! I’m a transportation planning student and longtime fan of your blog, and wanted to submit this map from the twin cities of Zlín and Otrokovice in Moravia in the Czech Republic. The cities have a long history as company towns for the Baťa shoe company and have a very different pattern of urban development than other cities in the region. The region, set in a valley, was planned reflecting modernist principles set by Le Corbusier and Ebenezer Howard, with later additions following the typical socialist-influenced planning used in other modernist housing estates in the former Czechoslovakia. The city’s trolleybus network, which began construction right before WWII, follows the main urban growth axis along the valley, and a local railway line is also integrated into the municipal transport ticketing scheme. The map used is an isometric one which uses coloration based on the tariff zones lines pass through, and line thickness determines the mode that operates on that portion. Let me know your thoughts!

Transit Maps says:

This is a bit of an odd one. While this diagram has been drawn with a lot of skill and precision, I don’t think it’s actually that usable as a piece of wayfinding design. The best example of this genre – an isometric diagram of S- and U-Bahn service in Stuttgart from c. 2000 – works because the whole thing is so simple and clean. All the routes are shown at the same level in the hierarchy and are traceable from one end to the other along their colour-coded lines, leaving no ambiguity at all.

However, this diagram is far more complex and idiosyncratic, and the isometric treatment just adds another barrier to comprehension on top of that. This means everything just takes that little bit longer to understand, and the oft-quoted “eight-second rule” (before a user simply gives up) starts to kick in. A few main problems that I see:

The colour-coding of lines by fare zone seems like a good idea, but it breaks the routes up into disparate segments that look for all the world like they’re totally separate routes that interchange at certain stations along the way. Meanwhile, the grey and white shading behind the diagram has absolutely nothing to do with fare zones, but apparently denotes areas where front door-only boarding is enforced (presumably to stop unscrupulous riders from sneaking on via the back door and not paying a fare?). So right from the start, that’s two major design elements that have completely different meanings to what they usually have on a transit map. While innovation and thinking outside the box are laudable ideals, too much messing with the recognised design language of transit maps can impede usability.

Because each mode – trolleybus and bus – only gets one route line regardless of how many services use each segment, users have to find their desired route number and then hunt for it across the map again and again to follow it to their destination. Changes of direction and branches aren’t shown that intuitively, so it’s hard work, made a bit more difficult by the fact that there’s no differentiation in the way that the route numbers are presented visually – it becomes tricky to know whether you should be following a thick trolleybus line or a thin bus line. Of course, locals might be aware that trolleybuses use route numbers 1 through 14 (the rest being normal buses), but that doesn’t help tourists or other people unfamiliar with the network.

The diagram certainly is visually striking, and I appreciate the attention to detail that’s been put into its creation. Like the Stuttgart diagram, there’s a “3D” building incorporated into the diagram that helps to really sell the dimensional illusion. I also really appreciate the way that there are absolutely no horizontal or vertical route line segments – these always look a bit out of place on these isometric projections. The legend is skillfully incorporated into the map, and the arrows to orient users along the length of the valley is also a nice touch.

Our final word: Really, really pretty – but it seems like a lot of hard work to actually use to get around. Too many conventions get turned on their head.

Source: Dopravní společnost Zlín-Otrokovice website