While there’s no shortage of guides for creating simplified, diagrammatic transit maps, finding resources and tutorials on how to make geographically accurate transit maps – like those used by many bus agencies – is a completely different story. Hopefully, this…
The MBTA map is a familiar sight for anyone who travels around Boston by public transit. But is it the best it can be? I don’t think so. That’s why I have been redesigning the map every year for the…
In a previous post, I identified one of the MBTA’s main problems as their poor public communications. I gave examples of how they failed to inform the public about issues such as the slow zones on the Lechmere Viaduct, the…
Update 10/28/23 – The T’s transparency is noticeably better. There’s definitely still a backlog (none of the incidents covered in this post have been addressed), but they’re definitely making steps in the right direction. What do the 30-day orange line…
Don’t mind me, just adding a note about this post: It’s pretty poorly written. I don’t want to delete it, because there’s already not much content on the site, but I desperately need to work on this post. Read at…
Background The MBTA has one of the most expansive commuter rail networks in the country – only behind New Jersey Transit and Metra (somehow the MBTA and Metrolink in LA are tied for 3rd place… they both have 388 track…
Background Despite it’s challenges, maintenance backlogs, debt and safety record, the MBTA is a lifeline for the city of Boston, one that must be expanded over the next few years to help Massachusetts meet its climate goals, ease traffic congestion,…
The Why: Designing a new map. The Metro is a unique system, having operating closer to an S-Bahn style system outside of downtown, with subway-equivalent service in downtown. That made it alot easier to scale up the size of downtown…
The Why: The MBTA map is one of the most iconic subway maps – trailing just behind London and NYC. Its an awesome looking map, but it distorts geography heavily to make text legible from afar. My mission with redesigning…
The Why: The 3 railroads are very intimidating networks. Unlike their easy to understand subway counterparts, the railroads feature tons of unlabeled service patterns and oddities that I find aren’t advertised very well on the existing maps. Some branches go…