Transit Fantasy Maps

[Dan416]

Personally I feel that adding in all the streetcar lines makes it too messy, and the subway map itself is difficult to read.

I would show the stops on the Eglinton line though.

 

[car4041]

I've just about finished a redesign of the TTC's rapid transit map. I felt that, aesthetics aside, it was sorely lacking in necessary information. I'd like to get all of your opinions and feedback on it before I release it.

Beautiful work! I love the details, e.g. the mode icons that reflect international standards while still keeping a Toronto look. And putting the CN Tower on there is genius.

In terms of the content, there are two planned GO-subway connections that the map doesn't really indicate: Downsview Park (for the Barrie line) and Bloor/Dundas West (for the airlink). Bloor station is on the map but it's not clear that there's actually a connection (which there will be). It's also expected that there will be GO connections at Eglinton & Caledonia and Eglinton & Weston/Black Creek, but maybe you're not showing these because they haven't been formally announced.

You could maybe simplify the streetcar map by removing the two routes that only run in rush hours. I'm not sure if the 7 daily trips of the 508 really warrant making the map messier!

It would be nice to have some sort of indication of the stops on the LRT lines. If labelling all the stops would make it too cluttered, you could follow Boston's model and put in a dot for each LRT stop, but only put in labels for the important ones.

In terms of design, is it really necessary to use the double-circle symbol at all connection points? It makes sense at St. George because you've drawn the two subway lines in parallel, but it looks quite odd at Eglinton West and Finch West, for example, where both of the circles are placed on the same line. It seems like a single circle where the lines cross would do the job just as well (especially since you aren't using a single circle to indicate anything else).

Also, a minor quibble, but the TTC subway map captures the fact that the St. George connection is much more direct than the Spadina connection, while your map seems to imply, if anything, that the Spadina connection is more direct (because you show the two lines crossing at Spadina).

More generally, the one drawback that I see is the scale -- your map contains a huge amount of white space and the text labels are very small. If you compare it with the current subway map, it's not nearly as legible from a distance (even though it's much more beautiful) and would have to be printed at a much larger size. I almost feel that if the map is going to be this large, and you're going to have such wide swathes of empty space, maybe you should make use of the space by also including the 10-minute bus network or something (although I know that's a whole 'nother project and it would no longer be just a rail map then).

That's a lot of comments, but it's only because I think the map is excellent and would like to see it get even better!

 

[N C]

Thanks for all your feedback, it's good to get other people's perspectives because I missed a few obvious things.

I added in all the LRT stops. There's no problem fitting everything in, I'm just not sure if it's actually necessary to show the names since the stops are quite close together. I wasn't aware of the new GO connections so thank you car4041 for pointing those out.

Also, regarding the size of the map, it was my intent to have this map and two others for bus/night service that would serve as the ultimate reference for transit within Toronto. Ideally this map would be printed poster size (but it's designed to legible at pamphlet size) for use in stations and on trains in the larger ad spaces. The strip maps above doors should be replaced with a simple line diagram, our system is getting too large to show everything that small.

Here's an updated version, thanks again for your comments.

 

[N C]

Out of curiosity, do you do design for a living or is this just a diversion?

I'm an autodidact who is fed up with bad design in Toronto.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Looks great. I also suggest extending the 512 to north of the Bloor line's Keele station as it actually terminates just past Keele. You currently have it ending around caledonia, which is inaccurate.

 

[N C]

Good catch, I've been staring at this all day and didn't notice that.

 

[reaperexpress]

Any feedback is welcome, thanks.

I absolutely love this map! It is so aesthetic and intuitive.

I think car4041 covered most of the things I noticed, but I differ on a couple points.

I don't think it's worth removing the rush-hour-only streetcar routes, they do exist after all so a transit map should show them. Maybe you could have a separate dotted line style for rush hour-only routes, but that would make the map a bit less simple.

To add on the point about double circles at transfer points, I would suggest that St.George use an elongated circle and Spadina use double circles, to indicate the difference in convenience of transfers.
The new merged circle design is better, but I personally prefer the single circle style.
I might make connections to GO more obvious with a different stop style, maybe with bigger dots.

 

[doady]

If subway and LRT are grouped together in the legend, then they should use the same symbol style on the map itself. I think they should be separate though, and on that note the Scarborough RT should be grouped with subway, since it is in fact not LRT, and it uses the same fare system as the subway.

It's a beautiful map, though I'm not a big fan of all lines being angled at 80/170/260/350 degrees or whatever angles those are, especially for a schematic map...

 

[N C]

If subway and LRT are grouped together in the legend, then they should use the same symbol style on the map itself. I think they should be separate though, and on that note the Scarborough RT should be grouped with subway, since it is in fact not LRT, and it uses the same fare system as the subway.

It's a beautiful map, though I'm not a big fan of all lines being angled at 80/170/260/350 degrees or whatever angles those are, especially for a schematic map...

I was under the impression the Scarborough line was going to be converted to LRT. The whole RT/LRT divide is difficult to work around to be honest, I just want to make it easier for people.

And I understand what you mean about the angles. It's unusual but it lets me have all the station labels horizontal and makes the map oriented to true North, which isn't really important but it's a nice perk.

 

[BurlOak]

I was under the impression the Scarborough line was going to be converted to LRT. The whole RT/LRT divide is difficult to work around to be honest, I just want to make it easier for people.

And I understand what you mean about the angles. It's unusual but it lets me have all the station labels horizontal and makes the map oriented to true North, which isn't really important but it's a nice perk.

I have zero mapping skills, but I will attach this mangled version of your map just to show my point graphically. I suggest you change the scale of the map the further you go from downtown. i.e. make the 4km from Bloor to the Lake twice as big as the 4 km from Bloor to Eglinton, which in turn is about the same as the 8 km from Eglinton to Finch. I tried something similar in the East-West direction (i.e. scale gets smaller the farther you go from downtown), but made an even bigger mess of it. This would make it easier to follow where the streetcars actually go. It may be nice to have the street grid faintly in the background and/or some of the streets labeled so you can tell what streets the various transit options are on.

 

[N C]

I have zero mapping skills, but I will attach this mangled version of your map just to show my point graphically. I suggest you change the scale of the map the further you go from downtown. i.e. make the 4km from Bloor to the Lake twice as big as the 4 km from Bloor to Eglinton, which in turn is about the same as the 8 km from Eglinton to Finch. I tried something similar in the East-West direction (i.e. scale gets smaller the farther you go from downtown), but made an even bigger mess of it. This would make it easier to follow where the streetcars actually go. It may be nice to have the street grid faintly in the background and/or some of the streets labeled so you can tell what streets the various transit options are on.

View attachment 9724

That's common practice for many transit maps but I don't like it for a couple reasons. The first is that Toronto is wider than it is tall, if you elongate the horizontal it actually makes it even more difficult to fit everything within a small area. The second is that I wanted to keep relatively close to the actual geographic distances between points. One of the issues with the London Tube map is that people don't realize how close stations actually are to each other because of how abstract the routes are. We don't have a very dense system here in Toronto, even in 2020, so a high level of abstraction isn't really necessary in my opinion.

 

[sixrings]

http://www.blogto.com/city/2012/11/a_better_map_for_the_ttc/

Posted by Staff / November 21, 2012

51 Comments



TTC mapNow that streetcars, subways and buses are getting an overhaul, isn't it about time the TTC thought about updating some of the other things that help us all get around? Nick Caron thought so and just completed an unofficial redesign of the TTC's rapid transit map (view it larger here) along with some other tweaks like a new logo and names for RT lines.

Like many of us, Caron was deeply unsatisfied with the visual design of the current maps. He felt there was no consistency in appearance or level of information between the many maps the TTC uses in print and online. The map he's designed would be the first part of what he calls a "much simpler puzzle" and represents all the rail transit within the city including streetcars and GO transit.

He plans to create two other maps that would cover bus transit and the blue night service. He hopes the wide and ugly array currently in use can be discarded in favour of his much more efficient system that only presents information the traveller needs, when they need it.

What do you think? Would you like to see the TTC adopt this map?

 

[doady]

From a practical standpoint, does it make sense for the TTC to include streetcars with subways and Transit City lines when the streetcars operate exactly like buses (i.e. no stations, no fare-paid zones, no all-door boarding)? Buses and streetcars should be together on one map.

But even a pure bus/streetcar system map alone would not make much sense considering the level of integration between bus/streetcar/subway that makes Toronto unique. There is simply not much practical use for a bus/streetcar-only map in Toronto.

 

[ssiguy2]

Why does Toronto always state how "unique" it's transit system is because of the connectivity of the bus/streetcar/subway?

Vancouver interconnects the regular buses, express buses , trolly buses, SkyTrain, Seabus, and West Coast Express. Calgary it's buses and LRT as with Edmonton, Montreal Metro and buses. If there is one system in Canada that I would point to as NOT being well connected it's transit systems in the GTA. The TTC doesn't even give a discount to people getting off the GO trains or buses nor any of the other other buses coming into the city from York, Miss etc. The Airlink will be completely incompatible with any of the transit systems.

Quick........how much is it from Miss to Ajax or downtown to Oakville or Brampton to Markham etc?
In Vancouver no matter where you are in the entire metroploitan area from Aldergrove all the way to Lion's Bay and all points inbetween there are only 3 fares and that's it. If you take WCE, the amount you paid is good for the train and all bus transit service in the entire metro. If you have paid your fare zone before getting to the WCE the exact amount is deducted from your commuter rail ride. The entire GTA transit system is notworthy only for the complete lack of integration between the systems. That's what happens when you have a bunch of cities with turf to protect and providing good transit service is secondary.

 

[Wrenkin]

They clearly meant the TTC by "Toronto", as indicated in the first paragraph. Also, they clearly meant physical rather than fare integration, e.g. older stations with bus loops built in, fare-paid zones, grid-based buses feeding into the Bloor line, etc.