Creating Bus Route Maps

[bluenoxid]

I have been looking at bus route maps around the internet and I am amazed to see the efforts that some volunteers manage to produce. How are they produced?

An example

http://www.sy-transport.co.uk/files/symap.pdf

 

[MCR247]

At a guess I'd say using something like Adobe Illustrator? I believe that is what is used for LU maps (by TfL professionals of course)

 

[telstarbox]

Vector graphics editors (such as Illustrator or Corel Draw) are used to create this sort of map, as opposed to programs like Paint which are raster/bitmap editors - explanation here.

Inkscape is a good free vector program if you want to create your own.

 

[34D]

What level of skill is needed to produce such a map?

 

[starrymarkb]

Some cities have had their bus networks mapped in open street map

http://osm.org/go/euKEDZtM-?layers=T

 

[telstarbox]

What level of skill is needed to produce such a map?

I produce similar maps at work using Corel Draw and haven't had any formal graphics training. As long as you're reasonably accurate with a mouse it is fairly easy to produce good quality maps on a desktop PC.

Professional maps like the South Yorkshire one above would be produced by importing the relevant street geometry from a mapping database and rounding off some of the corners, rather than drawing all the streets by hand.

FWT produce maps for many local authorities and transport organisations, including the ATOC London Connections and London & South East map.

 

[scandal]

Stick or diagram maps are usually produced using simple vector graphics programs (such as some of the comments on here).

For more geographically accurate maps, such as that South Yorkshire one, usually a combination of GIS (Geographical Information System) and graphics editors are used, OS OpenData and OpenStreet map can be used to create the base layer of geographcal data to then sketch and edit into an appropriate map.

 

[Pyromaniac]

FWT produce maps for many local authorities and transport organisations, including the ATOC London Connections and London & South East map.

My father used to work for FWT many years ago as a Cartographer. Used to draw out maps by hand and align names before sending over to editorial for computerisation.

At one point he spent a lot of time around London gathering information to update and improve all the local spider map diagrams (he still has one big copy someone). Along with doing a lot of First network maps (Southend/Weymouth come to mind). However he was also the guy who managed to fix the Queenstown Road (Battersea) station name being split on the London Connections map and cleaning up the junction there .

 

[jamesontheroad]

You should follow this Tumblr, which is a pretty good anthology and analysis of transit maps from around the world:

http://transitmaps.tumblr.com/

The guy who runs it is quite expert in designing them. You need to use a vector based drawing package (eg Adobe Illustrator rather than Adobe Photoshop) but the really good designers are evidenced by their details. It's very hard to get even a good vector based drawing programme to curve multiple fixed width lines around a point for instance (each line usually gets its own centre, if you know what I mean).

 

[34D]

So does anyone fancy having a go at one of these?