Transit Maps and How They're Made (ft. Will Watkins): Episode 18

Special guest and amateur draftsman Will Watkins of Park City, Utah joins us on a tour of the history of the transit map, a pedestrian feature of transit systems that we really shouldn't take for granted. We show off (tell about?) everything from the historic anchors that were the Tube maps to eccentric panoramic maps of San Jose and Utah. Visionaries like Harry Beck have established the design choices that make a transit map readable and good for its purpose, but not every agency has entirely caught on. Follow along in the timestamps below to see what we're talking about! Links and stuffs Merch:https://shop.trlpod.com/ Twitter:@TheRedLine_pod YouTube channel:The Red Line Podcast Spotify:The Red Line Podcast Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/theredlinepodcasters Email:[email protected] Website:https://www.trlpod.com/ Timestamps & visuals 00:00 Vignelli and his map -image 00:24 Theme song 00:56 Intro & meet our guest 01:50 The News 01:50 FX2-Division[1] 03:24 BART motorcycle crash[2] 05:04 Daytona 500 relocated 05:45 Early geographic transit maps 06:10 New NJT map -PDF 06:21 Amtrak map -PDF 06:59 Bus maps 07:08 Digital transit maps 07:50 Panoramic view maps 07:57 Old UTA map -Transit Maps 08:17 Ski resort map -image of Brighton (Utah) 08:36 San Jose -Transit Maps 08:54 45 degree station 09:17 Diagrammatic maps 10:51 District line in 1908 11:10 Strip maps -District line andUTA TRAX 12:26 Map pull-down 12:42 UTA bus map -PDF 12:52 Diagrammatic maps are now the standard 13:13 Evolution of the Tube map [3] 13:48 The first Tube map, 1908 -image 15:31 Enormous map -image 16:11 Fred Stingemore's 1926 map -image 17:25 Harry Beck's 1931 map -image 18:16 Beck's map published in 1933 -image 20:15 Mucked-up 1935 map -image 21:55 1940 hexilinear map -image 23:34 Modern TfL map -PDF 24:51 What makes a good transit map? 25:31 Communication first 25:53 Typography 26:09 Clear interchanges 26:54 Compactedness 27:33 Functionality specifically for transit 28:07 Navigating underground 29:10 Do one thing and do it well 29:42 New York Subway -current [PDF] andVignelli 31:57 UTA -old [Transit Maps] andcurrent [PDF] 40:04 TTC 2030 map -Twitter @augustAP12 40:29 Paris -image 42:48 Moscow Metro -PDF 45:48 Singapore MRT & LRT -image 47:47 Park City, UT -PDF 52:05 Will's Park City map -image 53:32 Accursed Park City maps 54:46 TransMilenio -Transit Maps 57:37 Thanks, Will!; crayoning; and goodbye References & notes [1]Mass Transit: TriMet's FX bus service begins on a transformed Division Street Corridor [2]DanvilleSanRamon: Details emerge about deadly motorcycle crash that shut down BART through Oakland for hours during Friday evening commute [3]Londonist: The History Of The Tube Map [4]Wikipedia: Transit map [5]Wikipedia: Harry Beck [6]A Tale of Two Maps: Analysis of the London Underground "Diagram" [7]Wikipedia: Tube map [8]BBC: The London Underground map: The design that shaped a city [9]Transit Maps (Will's favourite site) [10]Glantz Design: The World's Best Designed Metro Maps [11]Transit Maps: Tutorial: How To Design a Transit Diagram [12]Wikipedia: Massimo Vignelli