Chris's Musings

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Using open data to find the perfect home

If we had Dutch-style intersections, we’d ride our bikes everywhere, too

Urban planner Nick Falbo wants U.S. engineers to borrow a trick from the Dutch: Keep the bike lanes on the curb side of parked cars, and then add an island in front of the parking lane in the intersection so that turning cars are forced to give cyclists a little more space.

New Official Map: MBTA Rapid Transit, Based On Winning Contest Entry

First sightings are coming in of Boston’s new rapid transit map being deployed on trains and stations, and prints are also available from MBTAgifts.com. For now, the map on the actual MBTA website is still the previous version.

The blurb about the map on MBTAgifts.com says:

The 2014 MBTA rapid transit map was the result of an international competition for designs. This map is based on the winning submission and has been complete[ly] redrawn and updated by Central Planning Transportation Staff for the MBTA.

Completely redrawn. Based on. Uh oh.

So here’s a side by side comparison between Michael Kvrivishvili’s contest entry (left) and the final map that the MBTA has ended up with (right). It’s clear that the final map is based on Michael’s entry, but with a lot of changes.

Some are necessary (the use of standard ADA accessibility symbols), some are improvements (SL 1 and 2 are shown properly as loop lines, and the treatment of the airport shuttle buses is one of the best I’ve seen so far), but the majority of the changes dilute and harm the very strong and graphic design themes of Michael’s original map. 

Michael’s entry focussed very strongly on straightening out the routes as much as possible, reducing the number of curves to the bare minimum required. His Red Line was perfectly straight, apart from a last flick down to Braintree. The Ashmont-Mattapan branch was similarly straightened out. Not any more: the Red Line has pretty much reverted to its previous shape, with more twists and unevenly spaced stations.

Similarly, Michael’s Green Line, which ran in a beautifully clean straight line from Haymarket all the way to Heath Street, has also gained extra curves, all seemingly because of a “need” to show that the line changes direction after Boylston.

Other changes that affect Michael’s original design balance: the reintroduction of “blobby” interchange markers, the thinning of commuter rail lines in relation to their (now oversized) station markers, smaller station labels, more labels that cut across route lines, abbreviations for station names (“Gov’t Center” just looks terrible) the use of ALL CAPS for terminal stations (bold text alone is enough differentiation, and easier to read), the elimination of the visual “hook” of the perfect diamond in the centre of the map… and worst of all:

The replacement of Michael’s elegantly stylised coastline that matched the design of the route lines perfectly with the god-awful “pseudo-geographical” background of the previous map. It looks hideous.

PG is so good

An interesting model of our solar system’s path as it travels through space in the Milky Way.

The bus you need to be on is sitting in traffic. You are at the bus stop, stuck waiting in the cold. Your frustration is rising. Sound familiar? Schedules are helpful, but you want to know when that bus will REALLY arrive.

The meaning of Marissa Mayer: How Yahoo’s new CEO has already shifted the tide - GeekWire

Rafer sez: It’ll make the best men want to work there too.