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The man who can't stop drawing T maps
By adamg on Wed, 11/12/2014 - 11:42am
Boston Magazine interviews a British boffin who has drawn 13 different versions of the standard T map - with more to come.
Ed. note: The article shows several of his designs, which are cool, except they give equal weight to the commuter-rail lines, which seems a bit confusing given that it's really a separate system with its own fare system, but maybe I'm just cranky because I still like the simplicity of the early maps.
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Comments
The evolution of this guy's
The evolution of this guy's maps reminds me of that "webs from spiders on various drugs" thing from years ago.
I'll ask my brother
with Aspergers his opinion of these maps. Seriously, no sarcasm, he'll be fascinated.
Interesting thought
Mine has gone through a couple of map phases, but he probably wouldn't get to this until after he's done with that huge atlas of minor league baseball stats going back into the 19th century. I found it for his birthday.
Sorry Sis...
I went from that book to Re-Chording AC/DC songs for my 12-string :)
First things first
Could we at least get a map that doesn't show Cleveland Circle due west of Reservoir, not to mention as far away as Harvard is from Park? I mean, come on!
No Map is going to improve
No Map is going to improve the MBTA.
Maybe I have to stare at them more...
but they seem more confusing to me and not in a good way.
yeah
many are confusing.. but I see what he was aiming for at each one. Neat different takes though..
PS - his cross over of the framingham commuter rail line where it crosses the green line is wrong on every map. It should be between BU Central and BU East. But then again, looks like he's never rode the T so he wouldn't know that.
He also shows the Eastern
He also shows the Eastern Route splitting from the Reading & orange lines north of Assembly, whereas actually the CR crosses the OL south of Sullivan, and then the routes spilt between Sullivan and Assembly.
My guess is he knows these are wrong (I mean come on, I'm sure he looked at Google maps) but drew them like this anyway so as not to break the 'pattern' of each map.
Symbolic
His maps (like almost every T system map) aren't supposed to perfectly recapitulate geography, but help people navigate the system. Knowing that Framingham Line underpass is irrelevant since you can't hop on there. His maps show the direction the line moves in. The current official map, for instance, shows the cross at Harvard Ave on the B:
http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/
(along with a straight line on the Red from Kendall to Alewife and other inaccuracies)
Which is why I was a fan of this extremely fun, communicative, info-dense, geographically-accurate, and just adorably whimsical map proposal:
http://i.imgur.com/Wr4rt7r.jpg
I agree
I think this ones great. I like the different line weights (ha,ha), the greater geographical accuracy of the coast line and rivers, the dotted line showing the Boston city limits. And it makes me feel like dancing.
Trip
Reminds me of a LSD trip I was on decades ago... lots of wobbly lines that were not straight.. a few drops and that map would turn into moving spaghetti
Crossover nit-pick?
I think that was done so that the green line stop names could fit in more easily. I mean, that's quite a nit-pick. And it's between BU WEST and BU Central...
B line
The commuter rail crosses between BU west and BU central. East and Central are only a block apart in the middle of campus. Central and West are separated by the BU bridge turnoff, Storrow access, and the pike.
"Wachusett"
"Wachusett"
Fitchburg line extension
Fitchburg line extension under construction. I don't think the T will be renaming the line, but you'll board a train bound for Wachusett instead of Fitchburg.
Ed. note: The article shows
I like the addition of commuter rail lines to the map over the last 20 years. Why we need to accompany that is schedule improvement, so that the purple line is worthy of inclusion. Lines like Needham and Fairmont, with close station spacing, serving high density corridors, need to be more full scheduled. Maps like these show what could/should be.