Are transit maps a thing of the past?

[CHamilton]

The Great Subway Map War of 1978, revisited
Design fans love transit maps, but thanks to Google and GPS they may be a thing of the past

 

[jebr]

I highly doubt that transit maps will be going away anytime soon. Not only are they a nice overview of the system as a whole, it's a form that's much more accessible and readily available than a smartphone is (once you have the map, at least.) If my battery dies, I can still look at a map and see where I can go, or if there's a reroute I don't have to punch in my destination; I can just look at the map and see where I should go. I think the map idea also helps with spontaneous trips - you don't have to know exactly where you want to go when looking at a subway map. You can just decide "that looks like an interesting place to go" and go there.

There are still quite a few people that don't have smartphones either. Those customers still need to be able to get where they need to go on transit, and having a map helps with that.

 

[Ryan]

^^^ what he said

 

[jis]

Agree wholeheartedly with jebr and Ryan. I have seen no evidence of transit maps being eased out in any of the major transit cities. Google maps and GPS do not serve the purpose that the schematic transit maps serve IMHO.

 

[SubwayNut]

On the contrary, for example New Jersey Transit presently lacks a bus map (there were some odd "bubble" maps showing routes connecting populated places in the mid-1990s) and is the process of finally issuing them for each county.

 

[Chaz]

I am surprised that the NYC still gives out FREE maps! I used them but for daily use relied on billfold sized plasticized subway/bus maps sold in bookstores, newsstands etc (There were various sizes--such as 1 for your.briefcase).

When MapQuest & Google maps (and Hopstop.com which closed down this month) Came out trip planning became so much easier. It took a lot of goading but transit agencies finally started to follow suit. And there are now apps galore--official and not official.

I wonder how long transit agencies will issue free maps.

It seems gas stations stopped giving out free maps in the late 70's. AAA members can still get them and states issue them too.

2006 NYT's article on gas station maps

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/automobiles/collectibles/12MAPS.html?n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FSubjects%2FM%2FMaps

Google has lots of road map retrospectives...such as

http://northingeasting.blogspot.com/2012/02/gas-station-maps.html

Or this study of a 1950's gas station map of So. Calif:

http://jalopnik.com/5654480/remember-when-gas-stations-gave-out-free-maps

 

[NorthShore]

I recently walked to sever Loop L stations in search of a couple of CTA maps for a member of the forum who was on his way to the Gathering. All of the Customer Assistants admitted that they ought to have them, but none did. (I actually found someone with one or two left, but it was too close to departure time to get back to Union Station and hand it off.)

 

[cirdan]

Agree wholeheartedly with jebr and Ryan. I have seen no evidence of transit maps being eased out in any of the major transit cities. Google maps and GPS do not serve the purpose that the schematic transit maps serve IMHO.

Absolutely. Rememember that Google just uses a dumb algorithm. that happens to work ion many cases but will just occasionally throw a total howler, such as a multi-hour detour where maybe a 20 minute walk would have done better. If I can I like to check its proposals on transit and system maps to get some idea of what I'm doing.

 

[City of Miami]

I don't have a smart phone. I download maps from transit systems' websites onto my tablet. Then I have it available even when there is no wifi available. The tablet also seems to remember maps I have recently consulted on google even without a wifi connection.

An increasing number of transit system merely link you to google maps for their trip planner instead of offering their own. I don't know if this is a good thing or not - I haven't encountered any problems with it personally. Info seems to be accurate and up to date.

What a smartfone does offer from many systems is an app for real time position of vehicles. You need to have GPS for this though I can't understand why.

When I arrived in NYC this was the map in use: http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/caption.pl?/img/maps/system_1966_b.gif

I loved it! It was my first experience with a complex transit system and I thought it was perfect. Red for IND, Black for IRT and Green for BMT. Everybody still called them that and signage in the stations did too. Fare had recently risen to 15 cents. The next year, 1967, a new more schematic more detailed version came out which has evolved into what we have now.

 

[PerRock]

An increasing number of transit system merely link you to google maps for their trip planner instead of offering their own. I don't know if this is a good thing or not - I haven't encountered any problems with it personally. Info seems to be accurate and up to date.

On a day-to-day basis I haven't seen any issues. But usually when a service changes or a new one starts (or one gets cancelled) there can be a delay in getting Google Maps updated. Locally I've had a couple issues when The Ride changed the running times of one of the buses I took & Google didn't know.

peter