2012-04-03
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Produced for the SPUR magazine The Urbanist, two maps of the current and possible future public transport in the San Francisco Bay Area, by Brian Stokle (via).
I’m often a critic of London-style transit maps, even when they’re in London. Unfortunately, I feel the need to do the same here. As with the current BART map, Stokle’s designs don’t pick a set of angles, but instead preserve the rough geography of the Bay Area and then use a series of straight lines which are often parallel to nearby ones, but which bear no relation to others.
Meanwhile, the use of large interchanges makes it far from clear how the Muni streetcar/LRV lines in San Francisco proper interrelate- if you didn’t know how the K, L, and M branch at West Portal, this map isn’t going to tell you. Perhaps that’s OK as a base map for showing expansion, but for an actually usable map, that’s not good.
Speaking of expansion, the use of grey for all existing lines on the future map is a little jarring, but at least I can see why it’s been done that way. On the other hand, giving bus rapid transit schemes such thick lines when the existing Limited routes on the current diagram are almost missable with their thin lines seems odd. I know it’s a relatively cheap way to increase speed and capacity, but do they need that much emphasis? (Outside of SF, it seems that they are depicted more narrowly: look at the 35R from Pleasant Hill to Hacienda at the right of the Future map. Strange.)
That said, there are some elements of the maps that I was going to quibble with, but then decided to praise instead. The outlined boxes for interchanges that “require leaving the station to transfer” actually do a great job of showing how inter-county, inter-agency politics could (can? does?) cripple public transport in the region. Even changing between BART and Muni in the Market Street subway is a minor nightmare.
For all my criticism, I’m glad that there are people trying to fight for decent, joined-up thinking in the field here. I hope that this is a step in the right direction, even if it is flawed.
2012-04-02
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In 1920, the B line, replaced by the busy 38-Geary in 1956, departed from the spot where the Ferry Building stands today and zoomed out to near Ocean Beach in 35 minutes. The fare was a nickel.
Today a similar $2 trip on the 38-Geary takes 54 minutes, while the 38 Limited, which makes fewer stops, takes 43 minutes.
”After 100 Years, Muni Runs Slower at The Bay Citizen.
As the article notes, there are reasons for this. Even with a bus not a streetcar, there’s an obvious way to get the speeds back up: cut car traffic back to 1920 levels. (Of course, that’s far more easily written than done.)
(Also, a minor nitpick: the Ferry Building was already over a decade old by 1920.)
2011-12-16
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The route of the 207, which until last Friday was the last route served by a Mercedes-Benz Citaro ”bendy bus” (via London: A Year In Maps, via foe)
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2011-07-06
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Bus Cable Car Simulator, San Francisco. What more can be said?
(Source: buscablecarsimulator.com)
2010-11-12
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The London mayor, Boris Johnson, stands on the back stairs of the New Bus
Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images From the Guardian’s gallery: New London ‘Routemaster’ bus unveiled at Acton depot.
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The moquette on the “New Bus” for London. Are those meant to be contours? Seems like they might give people migraines.
Photograph: Linda Nylind, from the Guardian’s New London ‘Routemaster’ bus unveiled at Acton depot gallery.
2010-05-11
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2010-03-17
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Transport minister Lord Adonis, on how the Mayor ought to be handling the finances of Transport for London.
From London Reconnections’ dissection of the PPP Arbiter’s Final Report, via teflon.
2010-02-12
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On the left, the new(ish) Google-based bus maps from TfL. On the right, Alf Eaton’s onabus.com, as first seen last year. Both are showing the 19, Finsbury Park - Battersea Bridge (south side).
