This is here for archival purposes. Read this at your own caution.
Lets try this again
Earlier this year, I set out on a mission to redesign the MBTA map.
The result? A blocky mess that showed the system inaccurately and had no key bus routes.
I must’ve been scared of angles or something. And who approved that blue color??
Obviously, alot of room to improve the map design.
Last month, I decided to set things straight once and for all, and got to work designing a second version of the redesigned MBTA map. This map having more information than the original map, but in a nicer looking package.
The New Map
As you can see, the new maps share more resemblance with my redesign from earlier this year than the original MBTA map – but for good reason.
One thing this map excels at is how it displays the green line. It isn’t perfectly geographically accurate, but it shows how the lines are in relation to each-other, and where they come close together.
Where lines do come close together, this map includes “walking connections”. This is designed for out-of-the-way stations and not downtown stops, like the Chestnut Hill Ave – Cleveland Circle – Reservoir green line cluster. Unfortunately though, this doesn’t mean transferring is free between lines (as much as I wish it was), but rather just aims to give riders a quicker and more direct route (in layman’s terms: So tourists don’t take the green line to Kenmore and reverse back)
This map also features symbols for pedal & parks and restrooms, which I honestly think should be more common-practice for transit maps. As far as restrooms are concerned, this map only depicts public restrooms, and not every station containing a restroom. Information coming from my experiences and Miles in Transit’s amazing bathroom map yeah
I also threw in a dark version of the map. This serves no practical purpose, but it would be an awesome design for if the T ever brings back late night service.
Last but not least, the best change; the silver line is depicted with the same thickness as key bus routes, and isn’t depicted as a full subway line!
Design
This map was roughly based off of the map used during the 1970’s, and the Viganelli map used in New York City
The 1970’s design was definitely rough – but I don’t think its design was used to its fullest potential, unfortunately. This map aims to change that, and revive a 50-year-old map design!
The new map practices using larger text than your average transit map, and features a super legible font (Inter), which the T uses on its website. This makes it super legible, which means this map is awesome for small pamphlets and reading on a small device, or for people with poor vision!
