Mass Transit

Sony’s Subway Earphones Ads
A Sony ad campaign for its Walkman digital audio players shows subway network maps made from black Sony earphones. (Because they can’t be white earphones, silly.) In addition to the New York subway map poster making the rounds, there… »
Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 6:26 PM
Categories: London, Mass Transit, New York
Urban Rail Maps
Urbanrail.net is a fan site about the world’s urban rail networks; it features an extensive collection of rail network maps that are produced by the site’s author and are original to the site, though (and this is to be… »
Posted on Monday, May 12, 2008 at 7:50 AM
Categories: Cities, Mass Transit
The Return of Massimo Vignelli
Massimo Vignelli’s 1972 map of the New York subway system, which introduced a Beck-style diagrammatic transit map to the city (and which New Yorkers were not prepared for; the map was controversial and encountered opposition before it was replaced in… »
Posted on Friday, April 25, 2008 at 8:33 PM
Categories: Mass Transit, New York
Google Transit in Chicago
Google Transit comes to Chicago…. »
Posted on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 7:14 PM
Categories: Chicago, Mass Transit
Contour Lines and Other Stories: A Google Roundup
Contour lines have been added to Google Maps’s terrain map layer, which adds its their usefulness (especially, for example, in a mountain context). But it has some way to go before it’s a suitable replacement for a topo map;… »
Posted on Friday, April 4, 2008 at 9:31 AM
Categories: Blogs, Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Mass Transit, Online Maps, Topo Maps & Trails
Review: Transit Maps of the World
Transit Maps of the World by Mark Ovenden Penguin, 2007. Paperback, 144 pp. ISBN-13 978-0-14-311265-5 Billed on its cover as “the world’s first collection of every urban train map on Earth,” this is, in fact, the second revised edition of… »
Posted on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 12:39 PM
Categories: Book Reviews, Cities, Mass Transit
Transit Maps of the World (Again)
Cartophilia has a review of Mark Ovenden’s Transit Maps of the World — well, it’s not so much a review as an excuse to share images of transit maps, but I certainly don’t mind. I’ll be ordering my own… »
Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 10:18 PM
Categories: Books, Cities, Mass Transit
BART Maps Go Linear
BART, the San Francisco Bay area rapid transit network, is getting new network maps, SF Weekly reports. The new maps will, in the words of a BART spokesman, “have more straight lines” in the idiom of other, diagrammatic maps of… »
Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2007 at 8:40 PM
Categories: Mass Transit, San Francisco
Transit Maps of the World
Mark Ovendon’s Transit Maps of the World sounds delightful: it’s a compendium of maps of urban rail systems of more than 200 cities around the world. Cory Doctorow is smitten: “This is sheer public transit/map porn, and I’m in… »
Posted on Sunday, October 28, 2007 at 6:23 PM
Categories: Books, Cities, Mass Transit
Google Updates: Imagery and Transit
A couple of quick updates about Google’s mapping stuff — quick updates seem to be all I have time or energy for at the moment, what with the full-time contract and the resulting lengthy commute. Google Transit’s features have been… »
Posted on Wednesday, October 3, 2007 at 7:43 PM
Categories: Google Earth, Mass Transit, Online Maps, Satellite & Aerial
Mapping the History of the New York Subway
An animated map depicting the history of the New York subway: “[a]n animated GIF starts with a blank subway map and draws each line in the sequence in which it was built.” For more maps showing the history of New… »
Posted on Monday, September 24, 2007 at 8:42 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Historical Maps, Mass Transit, New York
NYC Subway Maps on an iPhone
Yes, the iPhone has Google Maps on it, but Khoi Vinh feels the need to carry along a mobile version of the official New York Metropolitan Transit Authority subway map on his iPhone. His solution is what he calls… »
Posted on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 at 8:03 PM
Categories: Mass Transit, Mobile Devices, New York
Some Google Maps Updates
Google Transit adds Reno and San Diego; I must have missed when they added the Japanese rail networks, domestic airlines and ferries. Google Maps for mobile supports GPS on certain devices — for example, the BlackBerry 8800 and some Windows… »
Posted on Monday, May 28, 2007 at 8:42 AM
Categories: Driving Directions, GPS, Mass Transit, Mobile Devices, Online Maps
Imaginary Transit Maps of Los Angeles
Numan Parada’s map of an extensive, and imaginary, rapid transit network for Los Angeles is one of several on the web site of the Transit Coalition, a public transit advocacy group. The maps envision a Los Angeles with a… »
Posted on Saturday, May 26, 2007 at 10:15 AM
Categories: Los Angeles, Mass Transit
Your Wallet Is Your Map
The Tubemap Wallet is one of those ideas that sounds really neat — even practical — in theory: a special wallet that folds out to reveal a map of either the London Underground or the New York subway. The… »
Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 at 9:53 PM
Categories: London, Mass Transit, New York
Massimo Vignelli Defends His Map
In this four-minute outtake that didn’t make it into the final version of the documentary film Helvetica, designer Massimo Vignelli talks about his 1972 map of the New York subway system — which, you may recall, encountered stout opposition…. »
Posted on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 at 5:46 PM
Categories: Mass Transit, New York, Video
Eddie Jabbour’s New York Subway Map
After posting the entry about the new Madrid Metro map, it occurred to me that familiarity may be as important as good design: a new map design will almost certainly encounter resistance from users of the current design if the… »
Posted on Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 5:03 PM
Categories: Mass Transit, New York
A New and Controversial Madrid Metro Map
Rafa Sañudo has designed a new map (3.1-MB PDF) of the rapidly expanding Madrid Metro (Wikipedia), but some residents, especially train enthusiasts, are upset with the new design, the Times reports. They much prefer the old map (123-KB PDF),… »
Posted on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 at 2:34 PM
Categories: Mass Transit
Massive Gallery of Subway Maps
A large gallery of subway maps that includes cities that you might not know have a subway system. The maps aren’t much to write home about, graphically speaking, and they don’t include light rail systems even when they’re a… »
Posted on Monday, February 26, 2007 at 8:54 AM
Categories: Mass Transit
Toronto Transit Map
Torontoist calls this transit map of Toronto “the best map ever in the history of anything.” What it looks like to me is the TTC transit map superimposed on a Google Maps interface. Not that that isn’t impressive in… »
Posted on Friday, December 15, 2006 at 9:51 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Mass Transit, Toronto
Google Transit Feed Specification
If you want your city to be included in Google Transit, point them to the Google Transit Feed Specification, which sets out the format in which the transit data must be encoded. Via Google Blog. Previously: Google Transit Adds Five… »
Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 at 8:56 PM
Categories: Mass Transit, Online Maps
Wikimedia London Underground Maps
In response to Transport for London’s crackdown on London tube map remixes (previous entry), the Wikimedia Commons is putting together a series of freely available maps of the London Underground. The maps are generated using PHP to process GPS… »
Posted on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 at 10:05 AM
Categories: London, Mass Transit
New York Subway Maps and Colour
Making subway maps is more than just choosing between Beck-style diagrams and geographically accurate maps, or something in between; as with any good map design, colour choice matters too. Yale Daily News tells the story of alumnus R. Raleigh D’Adamo,… »
Posted on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 9:18 AM
Categories: Mass Transit, New York
Credit-Card-Sized Stainless-Steel Subway Maps
Sure, laminated paper versions are cheaper, but a credit-card-sized, stainless steel map of the New York subway or London Underground is, well … it’s something, isn’t it? It’s fifteen bucks, anyway. Via Gizmodo, where they seem to think it’s… »
Posted on Friday, October 20, 2006 at 5:27 PM
Categories: London, Mass Transit, Miscellany, New York
Nintendo DS Subway Maps
Homebrewed subway maps for the Nintendo DS, including London, Lyon, Mexico, Paris and Vienna. Some hacking required. Via Matt…. »
Posted on Friday, October 13, 2006 at 6:45 AM
Categories: Mass Transit, Mobile Devices
Google Transit Adds Five Cities
Google Transit, the trip planner that includes public transportation data, started last December (see previous entry) with Portland, Oregon as its single city, presumably as a proof of concept. Today they’ve added five more cities: Honolulu, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Tampa, and… »
Posted on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at 10:13 PM
Categories: Cities, Mass Transit, Online Maps, Pittsburgh, Seattle
New York City Subway Smell Map
Gawker’s New York City Subway Smell Map, a Google Maps mashup with attitude: “Created from reports sent in by Gawker readers, the map displays particular smells — horrific and sublime — encountered throughout New York’s subway stations.” And you thought… »
Posted on Tuesday, September 26, 2006 at 6:34 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Mass Transit, New York
New York Subway Maps
Despite the success of Beck’s London Underground diagram, New Yorkers have historically resisted diagrammatic subway maps, preferring instead maps that are a bit more geographically accurate and take into account surface features like parks, bodies of water and neighbourhoods…. »
Posted on Tuesday, September 5, 2006 at 12:25 PM
Categories: Mass Transit, New York
Triangulations: March 15
Boing Boing reports that the archive of silly Tube maps (previously mentioned here) has gotten into a spot of legal trouble and has been taken offline. As a followup on this question, have a look at Stefan’s post about… »
Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 at 9:06 AM
Categories: Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Mass Transit, Topo Maps & Trails, Triangulations (Links)
Anagram Maps, Other Tube Maps
The anagram map of the London Underground I mentioned last month has since been hit with a cease-and-desist by Transport for London. In response, and in an act of solidarity, someone else created an anagram map of the Toronto subway… »
Posted on Wednesday, March 1, 2006 at 11:03 AM
Categories: Mass Transit
Link Roundup for February 17
I’m still up to my neck in Olympics nonsense, but I’ve got a few links to share with you that have been accumulating in my “post these soon” file. For all you tube map fanatics, a London Underground Map where… »
Posted on Friday, February 17, 2006 at 9:53 AM
Categories: Collecting, GIS, Mass Transit, Triangulations (Links)
Google Transit
In other Google News: Google Transit, which seems to be an in-house mashup of Google Maps and public transit data. It calculates costs and displays bus and rail routes and times; the examples give some idea of the parameters you… »
Posted on Thursday, December 8, 2005 at 9:21 PM
Categories: Mass Transit, Online Maps, Portland
Time-based Tube Map
Attention London tube map freaks: Oskar Karlin, whom we’ve met before, designed a new map of the London Underground as a design project. “I knew couldn’t just do a normal re-design; something had to be added. I started thinking what’s… »
Posted on Wednesday, November 30, 2005 at 12:07 PM
Categories: Mass Transit
Apple C&D: New Name for iSubwayMaps
A little while ago William Bright started a web site where you could download subway maps to your iPod, taking advantage of the photo-storage capabilities of iPods with colour screens (see previous entry). Then some metro transit authorities caught wind… »
Posted on Thursday, October 13, 2005 at 10:36 PM
Categories: Mass Transit, Mobile Devices
PSP Subway Maps
Subway maps aren’t just for iPods any more; Engadget points to subway maps for the Playstation Portable: a map of the New York subway (in defiance of licencing policies) and maps of other cities’ subway systems. I don’t recall this… »
Posted on Monday, October 3, 2005 at 9:48 AM
Categories: Mass Transit, Mobile Devices
C&D for iPod Subway Maps
iPodSubwayMaps.com has received cease-and-desist letters from the New York and San Francisco transit authorities, who are invoking their copyright on their system maps, which the site breaks into iPod-screen-sized pieces that can be parsed via the scroll wheel. The developer,… »
Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 at 8:32 AM
Categories: Mass Transit, Mobile Devices
Paris Metro as Google Maps Hack
I like what Jef’s done with this map of the Paris metro done with Google Maps. The lines are laid out as vectors, and it includes routing between two points, including line changes and estimated travel time. Via Google Maps… »
Posted on Monday, August 22, 2005 at 10:04 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Mass Transit, Paris
iPod Subway Maps
If you’ve got an iPod with a colour screen, you can put subway maps on it. It’s a simple matter to put digital images on an iPod; where maps are concerned, though, it’s a challenge to make sure they’re legible… »
Posted on Friday, August 12, 2005 at 8:08 AM
Categories: Boston, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Mass Transit, Mobile Devices, New York, San Francisco
London Underground Line Closures
Feòrag’s London Underground map (343 KB JPEG) edits out the lines that were closed due to yesterday’s bombing incidents. Via Boing Boing…. »
Posted on Friday, July 22, 2005 at 7:50 AM
Categories: London, London Bombings, Mass Transit
Tube Disruptions Movie
Fed up with delays on the London Underground, Stef took Transport for London’s tube disruption maps and spliced them together into a three-minute time-lapse movie that shows delays over a 15-day period. The result? “London Underground is disruption free, a… »
Posted on Wednesday, June 29, 2005 at 8:47 AM
Categories: London, Mass Transit
A Plea for Open-Source Public Transit Maps
Over on environmental blog WorldChanging, Jeremy Faludi calls for open-source public transit mapping services, on the basis that online mapping services are focused on driving directions rather than transit, and that transit services aren’t as useful or user-friendly, and lack… »
Posted on Wednesday, June 22, 2005 at 8:23 AM
Categories: Mass Transit
Seattle Buses in Real Time
If the amount of maps, software and hardware available is any indication (see previous entries: 1, 2; the Seattle Area Traffic page has moved since that July 2003 entry), the traffic around Seattle can’t be very good. Now here’s another… »
Posted on Monday, May 30, 2005 at 11:13 AM
Categories: Mass Transit, Seattle, Traffic Conditions
Copenhagen Commuter Trains in Real Time
This page shows the real-time position of trains in the Greater Copenhagen commuter rail network. The trains are colour-coded to show how on time or late they are. Note that the page uses Java. (Nicolas Jasson hid this gem in… »
Posted on Monday, May 16, 2005 at 10:26 AM
Categories: Mass Transit, Railroads
Question: Wall-sized London Tube Map?
Don Sattler writes, “I’m in London on vacation and would love to purchase a large map of the tube system to hang on my office wall. I can’t seem to find one. Do you know of any shops that might… »
Posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 at 5:39 PM
Categories: London, Mass Transit, Questions
London Underground on MetaFilter
Tube map fanatics should not miss the ultimate MetaFilter post on the London Underground. Some stuff you may have seen before, even here, but it’s all in one spot, see?… »
Posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 at 10:52 AM
Categories: London, Mass Transit
Japanese Rail and Subway Maps
Nicolas Jasson has submitted a frighteningly impressive number of links to Japanese rail and transit maps. His e-mail, which I’ve edited to incorporate links into the text, is as follows: I am very interested in railways and transit and Japanese… »
Posted on Sunday, February 13, 2005 at 11:24 PM
Categories: Mass Transit, Online Maps, Railroads, Tokyo
Oslo and Tokyo Subway Maps
Ben Tesch has posted subway maps for Oslo and Tokyo on Flickr, which is handy…. »
Posted on Sunday, February 13, 2005 at 10:39 PM
Categories: Mass Transit, Tokyo
Homemade New York Subway Map
A homemade New York subway map that includes other railroads and is based on the London diagram. Says the designer: My design goals were to present a simple, clear diagram of all the passenger railroads in the city and just… »
Posted on Thursday, December 9, 2004 at 9:30 PM
Categories: Mass Transit, New York, Railroads
New URL for Tube Map Archive
The London Tube Map Archive has a new URL, now that sitehouse.net is no longer operative. I don’t know when it happened: I linked to the old address in April 2003; The Cartoonist linked to the new address on Sunday…. »
Posted on Tuesday, November 2, 2004 at 2:59 PM
Categories: London, Mass Transit
History of the New York Subway Map
Why should the London Underground map get all the attention (see previous entry)? The New York Times has a brief story (usual registration caveats) on the origins of the current New York subway map, which dates to 1979. Thanks James…. »
Posted on Friday, October 29, 2004 at 8:53 AM
Categories: Mass Transit, New York
Profile of Tube Map’s Creator
Last Thursday’s Guardian — they do seem do have a lot of map-related content, don’t they? — had an article about Henry Beck, the creator of the iconic London Underground map that ditched scale and proportionality in favour of clarity…. »
Posted on Monday, September 20, 2004 at 10:09 AM
Categories: London, Mass Transit
London Tube Map Satellite Image
For you Tube map freaks: R. Gardiner has taken a geographically accurate map of the London Underground and superimposed it on a satellite image of the city. Very effective. Via Here Be Dragons…. »
Posted on Thursday, August 12, 2004 at 11:01 AM
Categories: London, Mass Transit, Satellite & Aerial
Las Vegas Monorail
Las Vegas’s monorail, which opens July 15, connects several hotels/casinos along the Strip (naturally). Here’s a map of the line. Via Slashdot…. »
Posted on Thursday, July 1, 2004 at 10:23 AM
Categories: Mass Transit
Subway Maps
The Subway Page has a simply monstrous list of links to maps of various subway, light rail and commuter rail systems around the world. Some official, some homemade, many of places less well known. If the London Underground can have… »
Posted on Thursday, May 13, 2004 at 10:10 AM
Categories: Mass Transit
Translated Tube Map
Here’s another subway map, sort of. Every day, more and more people are having graphical fun with a map of the London Underground. Ralf links to one where the names have been “translated” into German. I am told by German-speaking… »
Posted on Friday, April 9, 2004 at 9:48 AM
Categories: Mass Transit
Scale Subway Systems
Subway systems of the world, presented at scale (via Kottke). I only know Paris’s system personally (see previous entries: Paris Metro, Maps as Mnemonic Aid — My Trip to Paris in 1997), and it looks like surface trams, but not… »
Posted on Thursday, March 4, 2004 at 8:13 AM
Categories: Mass Transit

Note: Entries from 2003 were not categorized and will not appear in the category archives. Please consult the monthly archives.