London's spider maps

Transit

by Michael Perkins • September 25, 2009 11:20 am

Transport for London has these great bus maps that show routes traveling in all directions from major transit nodes.

Liverpool Street map from Transport for London. Click to enlarge (PDF).

These maps, known as "spider maps," are more abstract than the station-oriented bus maps Metro posts in stations and recently put online. They combine several useful features:

A local area walking map, showing the location of the different bus stops keyed to a table of routes;
A schematic route map for the bus, showing routing to other transit nodes in the area;
A table of routes leaving from that node, either daytime or nighttime routes.

These maps, Metro's station area maps, Los Angeles Metro's "12 Minute" maps (discussed here), and improved bus schedules are all created by CHK America, Inc.

There are some challenges with this mapping method:

You have to name the "dots". Could DC residents agree on what to call the many new places we'd have to represent as a dot on a map? Or would the dot names become conglomerations, like some Metro station names? Bus stops do have names today, typically the name of the cross street, so perhaps those could suffice.
Our bus service seems more complicated. Some routes only travel certain times or have "turn-back" service. For example, there are some Metrobus routes that operate only two or three trips a day. Is it better or worse to put them on the map?
Our buses are not as frequent as London's. This kind of map is most useful if the rider only has to worry about routing and not schedule. Once a rider has to worry about bus schedule and timetables, it's likely this won't be enough information. Perhaps the line widths could vary to convey frequency information.

Despite these challanges, spider maps make it very easy for someone to easily find the bus line to get from a station to any destination. Maps like these could be very valuable in the Washington region, as they are in London.

6 comments — Share	— tags: buses, London, maps

Metro releases station-oriented bus maps (Aug 17, 2009)
Bus on-time performance: It matters what you measure (Jun 17, 2009)
Improve Metrobus maps online (May 15, 2009)
Could a "12 Minute" bus map increase bus ridership? (Apr 22, 2009)
Bus frequency map (Apr 14, 2009)

Comments

Ha, I see my old bus- the 205. I used to go from Angel/Islington down to Liverpool St Station every day to meet my friend for lunch. Beautiful OLIN designed plaza down there.

by Chris Loos on Sep 25, 2009 2:15 pm

1) There's not so much near a bus stop that you'd get too many ridiculously long names. At some point, something will be nearer to the next stop.
2) London buses aren't all frequent. And short turns exist too. If you look at the Croydon spider map, you'll see how the 166, which runs 3bph to Banstead and 1bph beyond, is treated. Unfortunately, there isn't very much consistency: the Chessington map doesn't give any indication that the 467 also runs hourly and stops before 7pm.
3) But at least joke (sorry, "mobility") routes like the 931 (which runs one bus per week between Crystal Palace and Lewisham, duplicating sections of other routes) don't make it onto any spider maps, and seem to be dying (the 962, arguably the most pointless of the lot, seems to have vanished). There really comes a point where some form of transport-on-demand makes sense...

by James D on Sep 25, 2009 10:26 pm

I really liked the vertical spider maps they used, where the top or the bottom would indicate the stop you were at, and the routes serving the stop would branch out diagrammatically and show their stops separately. Great when there was a constraint of space, even though not as much information was disseminated compared to the one shown above. I too was a frequent user of the 30/205 bus when I lived near Baker Street. Many days it was faster for me than taking the dreaded Circle Line.

by Reza on Sep 26, 2009 4:27 am

The vertical maps Reza refers to are still in use at one-stand bus stops.

To your 'naming the dots' point-- the 'dots' on this map are only the big bus stops (ie, interchanges with subway or rail stations-- thus pre-named).

by skiddie on Sep 26, 2009 5:21 am

I used these maps when in London earlier this year. Combined with displays at the bus shelters indicating time until the next bus, it makes using London buses very easy. We need both here in DC.

by LM on Sep 27, 2009 4:50 am

Are these fairly new? I can't remember any bus shelters when I was in London at all, let alone shelters with wayfinding...just a sign with the transport logo. That was 2003-2004.

by Chris Loos on Sep 27, 2009 9:52 am