{"id":1790281,"date":"2021-03-02T08:45:03","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T13:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1790281"},"modified":"2021-03-02T08:45:03","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T13:45:03","slug":"why-transit-maps-mislead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/03\/why-transit-maps-mislead\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Transit Maps Mislead"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why Maps Mislead | Transit Maps Don&#039;t Always Reflect Reality\" width=\"760\" height=\"428\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hnWnTamZEBE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>RMTransit, a transit enthusiast YouTube channel, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hnWnTamZEBE\">looks at some of the shortcomings of transit maps<\/a>: how maps tend to fail at things like mode (tram vs. subway) or frequency. Very much from a rider perspective rather than from the perspective of map design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RMTransit, a transit enthusiast YouTube channel, looks at some of the shortcomings of transit maps: how maps tend to fail at things like mode (tram vs. subway) or frequency. Very much from a rider perspective&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/03\/why-transit-maps-mislead\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1790281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-transit","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1806894,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/04\/thoughts-about-transit-fantasy-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1790281,"position":0},"title":"Thoughts About Transit Fantasy Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"18 April 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/0JyBeZCGMoM Reece Martin of RMTransit has some thoughts about transit fantasy maps. These are maps that imagine a different transit network for a city, usually greatly expanded (often to the point of implausibility, with lines having nothing to do with where demand actually is or where available transit corridors exist).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Transit&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Transit","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/transit\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/0JyBeZCGMoM\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1786195,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/08\/new-ottawa-transit-map-goes-diagrammatic\/","url_meta":{"origin":1790281,"position":1},"title":"New Ottawa Transit Map Goes Diagrammatic","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"30 August 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"Last week OC Transpo, the City of Ottawa's transit service, unveiled a new network map (PDF) that shows the transit routes that will be in effect after the new LRT opens, which is (at the moment) scheduled to take place in November. From a cartographic perspective, what's interesting is that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Transit&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Transit","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/transit\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/octranspo-new-1024x645.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/octranspo-new-1024x645.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/octranspo-new-1024x645.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/octranspo-new-1024x645.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5293,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/10\/ottawa-transit-maps-1929-2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":1790281,"position":2},"title":"Ottawa Transit Maps, 1929-2015","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"19 October 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Carelton University's library has an online collection of Ottawa transit maps from OC Transpo and its predecessor agencies, dating as far back as 1929 (above). The originals scanned as PDFs, with SHP and KML files if the vectorized transit routes are what you're really after. [Transit Maps]","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Transit&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Transit","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/transit\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/ottawa-transit-1929-1024x410.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/ottawa-transit-1929-1024x410.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/ottawa-transit-1929-1024x410.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/ottawa-transit-1929-1024x410.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6029,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2015\/10\/new-edition-of-transit-maps-of-the-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":1790281,"position":3},"title":"New Edition of Transit Maps of the World","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"5 October 2015","format":"link","excerpt":"A revised and expanded edition of Mark Ovenden's Transit Maps of the World is coming out in early November, presumably because the transit systems, and the maps thereof, have also been revised and expanded since the first edition was published in 2007. (My review of the first edition is here.)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Transit&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Transit","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/transit\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3261,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/11\/how-the-transit-app-got-its-curves\/","url_meta":{"origin":1790281,"position":4},"title":"How the Transit App Got Its Curves","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"2 November 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"The makers of the Transit app (iPhone, Android)\u00a0like to point out that whereas\u00a0Apple's transit maps are beautiful\u00a0but basically hand-drawn and\u00a0added manually and slowly, and Google's maps are algorithmically generated but look terrible, their maps are algorithmically generated but look smooth and neat. A technical post by their backend developer explains\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Mobile&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"transit-app","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/transit-app-150x150.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1845076,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/10\/deins-transit-maps-london-in-the-style-of-paris-and-vice-versa\/","url_meta":{"origin":1790281,"position":5},"title":"Dein\u2019s Transit Maps: London in the Style of Paris, and Vice Versa","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"21 October 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"Abraham Dein makes transit maps in the style of other transit maps\u2014notably, a London Tube map in the style of a Paris metro map, emphasizing express lines and anchored by orbital routes. But he\u2019s also got other cities, like Barcelona, Glasgow and Paris, drawn in the London or Paris style,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Transit&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Transit","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/transit\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1790281"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1790285,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790281\/revisions\/1790285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1790281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1790281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1790281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}