Matthew Blackett's TTC map ideas

[unimaginative2]

That's a good idea. Most tourists won't really ride a bus, but they'll take streetcars. A streetcar and subway map of downtown is a good idea for tourist guides.

 

[nfitz]

If you don't already know which routes connect to which stations, a list of route numbers will be entirely meaningless and useless without accompanying route maps for each route number...in other words, without a Ride Guide.

What list of route numbers? I'm not advocating a list of route numbers. I was advocating the streetcar map. I don't see much value in the other one, and not having anything good to say about it, never mentioned it.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

I've only been talking about the second map.

 

[nfitz]

I've only been talking about the second map.

... except for the piece of your post I replied to, where you said The streetcar map is useless, the surface connection map already exists in a superior form in the Ride Guide.

Otherwise though, clearly we were talking about 2 different things! No wonder we weren't getting anywhere!

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Yeah, I simply stated it was useless and then you went on to address my comments about the second (subway) map.

Anyway, the point is that both maps are well-made and well-intentioned, but ultimately useless.

 

[Hipster Duck]

If the Streetcar-only map isn't acceptable to the TTC for general circulation in the system, then they should perhaps consider it for tourist guides, etc.

One of the tourist guides to Toronto - the Rough Guide, I think - has a streetcar map inside the back flap.

 

[RedRocket191]

Yeah, I simply stated it was useless and then you went on to address my comments about the second (subway) map.

Anyway, the point is that both maps are well-made and well-intentioned, but ultimately useless.

Kudos to anyone who makes fantasy maps or any other TTC themed artwork. However I must agree. The transit system cannot ignore everything but streetcars and subways. If we are to encourage transit use, we have to show people that ther are connections to get them as close to their destination as possible.

 

[DENTROBATE54]

There's actually a different TTC route map that I've seen a couple times. They have one in a committee room at City Hall, and it shows all the bus routes as a separate line with different colours. It's a fantastic map, but it's ha-uuge.

That sounds like the 905 method, which is very effective . Unlike Toronto, the route number takes emphasis over route name. Hence it's not only aesethetically pleasing to be polychromatic, it's easier to process as well.

The TTC system map on the other hand is far too fussy, with every route represented as red and requires looking at 3 different sections to make sense of it all (the subway strip at the bottom, the surface route names box in the top left corner and the actual map where one's faced a thickened red line in places representing multiple routes).

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Kudos to anyone who makes fantasy maps or any other TTC themed artwork. However I must agree. The transit system cannot ignore everything but streetcars and subways. If we are to encourage transit use, we have to show people that ther are connections to get them as close to their destination as possible.

Perhaps the Ride Guide could be adjusted to show streetcar lines as zig-zags or dashes or a darker shade of red...or whatever. This would eliminate the need for superfluous supplemental maps that by nature will be inferior to the Ride Guide. With the electronic stop displays, I even question the need for individual route maps in surface vehicles. But this is the TTC, and the needs of tens outweigh the needs of thousands, so they might jump on novelty maps like these.

 

[W. K. Lis]

New York has its Subway.
London has its Underground.
San Francisco has its Cable Cars.
Toronto has its Streetcars. That should be promoted with the streetcar map.

 

[JasonParis]

Although, to be a devil's advocate, while Toronto's current fleet of CLRV and ALRV streetcars are quite unique in a world perspective, our next generation of low-floor European-style trams won't be so much.

 

[DENTROBATE54]

Perhaps the Ride Guide could be adjusted to show streetcar lines as zig-zags or dashes or a darker shade of red...or whatever. This would eliminate the need for superfluous supplemental maps that by nature will be inferior to the Ride Guide. With the electronic stop displays, I even question the need for individual route maps in surface vehicles. But this is the TTC, and the needs of tens outweigh the needs of thousands, so they might jump on novelty maps like these.

The streetcar system is no better than buses, they're only hyped up to compensate for the lack of subway lines in Toronto. Why go through any adjustments for just 12 routes out of over 200? The TTC's too large a system for every route to have individual maps but at least along major arteries pictographs would be helpful. Brampton's network has schedules for all its routes from a pictograph of the entire route to exact-to-the-minute arrival/departure times. As such I'm confident I can leave my house a mere minute or two before it says my bus will arrive and not fear missiing it. Toronto? If it ain't subway, prepare...to...WAIT!