H Street bus "spider map" can demystify bus service

Transit

H Street bus "spider map" can demystify bus service

by Peter Dunn • September 8, 2011 11:54 am

More people would likely ride the bus if service were more convenient. But would more people use the existing service if it were just easier to understand?

A few weeks ago, this blog discussed "spider maps," used widely in London. They are one tool to better communicate bus service. I created a similar map for the H Street neighborhood:

Image by the author. Click for full version (PDF).

Rather than attempt to communicate the entire route network, a spider map only shows the routes that serve stops within walking distance. Like London's famous Tube map, it also forgoes the geographic accuracy of a street map for a simplified diagram of connections and destinations. It answers the questions "where can I go from here?" and "what bus do I take to get there?" without adding unnecessary information.

When I lived in South London, with no car and a long walk from the Tube, I moved across the city by bus using spider maps. They gave me a clear mental image of the destinations I could travel to from my regular neighborhoods. I also knew that if I found myself someplace new, I could use these maps to easily find a bus home without pre-planning my trip.

After moving to DC a year ago, still with no car, I've yet to figure out where a bus can take me from my own neighborhood. For many trips, I'd be happy to take a bus, but because of the effort it takes to figure out the system, it's usually easier not to bother.

The Mobility Lab is hoping to develop a program to generate user-customized spider maps, and will work on it at Saturday's hack day. In anticipation of this project, and to demystify one corner of the bus network, I've designed this modified version of a London spider map for the H Street NE area, designed to fit in poster slots at bus shelters.

Consider your challenges if you're a new bus rider in this neighborhood. Some stops have no information at all beyond the route number. If you're not already a regular on this route, you're out of luck. Many stops have a small route map on the sign post:

Image from WMATA. Click to enlarge.

There's some useful street information in there if you can find it, but it's far from ideal. How do you know where you are this map? If this bus doesn't take you where you want to go, is there a nearby bus that will?

You might try to get a bigger picture with the Metrobus service map available online and posted at some bus shelters. It shows all services on a street map of the entire District, which is much more information than you need, and it's quite difficult to decipher. Here's the H Street area:

Image from WMATA. Click for full version (PDF).

To figure out which of those red lines connect to which other red lines, you'll have to try to connect the dots between labels, and in many cases it's just a guess. The Metrorail red line looks like a bus line. The B2 is green because it goes to Maryland, which is helpful if that's where you're headed, but doesn't really matter to you if your destination is on the other 95% of the route. Downtown is removed in a separate inset. Figuring out how you can get across town will require patience and determination. (The older version of the map actually used more colors, but Metro changed to this more confusing version in 2009.)

A few shelters offer an improvement on this map that highlights only the routes from that particular stop. This is the right idea, and it's an easy way to quickly improve legibility. But it still simultaneously gives the H Street rider too much information (a street map of Tenleytown, for example) and too little.

Some maps would be more useful if they showed additional routes nearby (top left). Others (bottom) show two services equally, even though one only runs on weekday mornings. At a stop on Bladensburg Road, the map (top right) says that the X2 down Benning Road stops there, but it's actually across the street.

By this point, you've probably given up and are taking a cab. It's a shame when transit is under-utilized because of poor information.

The spider map makes bus service more visible and understandable by focusing on the only the information relevant to your current options. Its focus area is more than a single stop, but less than the entire system. Within the focus area, it shows clearly where each stop is and which line it serves:

Click to enlarge.

Outside the neighborhood, each separate route has a separate line. The diagram gives the names of all major streets and neighborhoods these routes serve, but it doesn't add clutter with a full street map. It shows all Metrorail connections, but not the bus routes outside the focus area.

My design makes a few modifications to London's in adapting the style to DC For example, in London, you can expect most buses to run with reasonable frequency throughout normal operating hours. This is far from true in Washington. If you see the X3 on a map and think it will be a convenient trip from the Atlas District to U Street, it will be very important for you to figure out that you can only make that trip on weekday mornings. My design gives limited service routes a different graphical treatment and a clear label.

I also include a table of approximate service frequencies. (Riders would ideally check their route's detailed timetable at that route's particular stop.) Metro's current stop-specific maps offer this table, but not for the nearby services that may provide better options.

In addition, London's maps generally cover a smaller area, perhaps a major intersection or the roads surrounding a rail station. I could have created two separate maps for this area (one around 8th Street and one for the Starburst intersection at the eastern end of H Street), but these intersections have fewer routes than the equivalent in London. In Washington, there's a greater likelihood that you'll have to walk farther to get the bus you need, so I use an expanded area.

This map shows the bus routes through the central street map, whereas London omits the route lines and directs riders to the appropriate stop using a system of letters. In part, this is to avoid the spaghetti mess that would result in showing routes through intersections like these:

It's also necessary because in London, adjacent stops may serve different routes on the same street, and the letter system helps riders identify the stop they need. It's true that the exact routing is unimportant; all the rider needs to know is where the stop is, and where the bus will go. But the DC routes are straightforward enough to show, and with only a few exceptions, every bus serves every stop it passes. (The exceptions are made clear with symbols on each individual line.)

Finally, while the spider map style favors graphic economy over geographic accuracy, I've included more geographic clues than London maps do. These include the rivers, the Mall, the District boundary, and the quadrants. London's labyrinthine streets are famously difficult to navigate or conceptualize, but the L'Enfant grid is a coherent orientation tool for most Washingtonians. I take advantage of those mental reference points by maintaining some diagonal angles, showing most major turns, and placing all stops in their correct quadrant. This level of fidelity means the map doesn't get quite the spatial compression of London maps, but it still saves space and removes noise from the full-scale District map.

One modification worth considering is adding information on bus transfers. London buses offer better point-to-point service, but in Washington you may want to know what other routes you can pick up. For simplicity's sake, I've omitted them here, but a better design decision would be based on data on the frequency of bus-to-bus transfers.

The spider map is not a standalone solution. It works best with complementary signage, sign-post maps, and timetables that are stop- or route-specific. Personalized tools and mobile applications are critical rider resources as well, and the Mobility Lab's projects hope to add real value here. My bet is that a system of spider maps—not cheap to create, but cheaper than expanded service or capital improvement projects—would increase ridership simply by making the bus less of a mystery.

56 comments

Tags: buses, DC, H Street, maps, WMATA

Would personalized "spider maps" be useful for DC? (Aug 18, 2011)
London's spider maps (Sep 25, 2009)
Google Street View now shows bus stops (Dec 27, 2010)
Combine the Circulator and Metro maps for visitors (Sep 1, 2010)
Could a "12 Minute" bus map increase bus ridership? (Apr 22, 2009)

Peter Dunn manages a knowledge-sharing network for local government professionals with the International City/County Management Association. He is a graduate of the Cities Programme at the London School of Economics.

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Off all the map series, this has been the most useful.

One quick rejoinder: Isn't the purpose of the maps right now to discourage ridership?

by charlie on Sep 8, 2011 12:01 pm • link • report

Excellent post Peter! Came from LDN 2 years ago and though I lived next to a Underground station (Stockwell& Finsbury park) spider maps helped my journeys a lot when travelling of the beaten path or when taking a night bus!

Not everyone has a smart phone! As such good information is essential if one wants to increase ridership.

by Vincent on Sep 8, 2011 12:13 pm • link • report

This is genius. I wish someone would demystify the "DART" bus & light rail (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) too, bc I might actually consider taking it if I knew it would get me where I'm going! The DFW area is notorious for not being able to get anywhere without a car.

by Grif on Sep 8, 2011 12:17 pm • link • report

I love the spider maps. The Pike Ride maps are from the same company that produces the London spider maps. I find them to be very useful and provides connection information as well as points of interest. I wish I had the skills to make the type of maps. I personally know someone who works in scheduling for Metro (an MTA transplant) who designed the current maps for MTA with the individual bus lines and the new system map.

by Ken Conaway on Sep 8, 2011 12:19 pm • link • report

I just returned from my first trip to London, and one of many take-aways was the bus shelter map system. Good timing, this post is.

by Kevin Cole on Sep 8, 2011 12:19 pm • link • report

Fantastic idea. WMATA would be smart to pick this up.

by cmc on Sep 8, 2011 12:28 pm • link • report

This is great! I take the 90s and D6 regularly and the B2 occasionally, and it's taken me 2 years of ridership to get a mental map with half the detail of this map. I'd love to see maps like this for other areas of DC.

by miriam on Sep 8, 2011 12:28 pm • link • report

Very nice. I was thinking you missed the D6 bus but, no, it's near but doesn't connect to H. Outside the scope. The H Street business development folk should license your map and distribute it.

by Steve on Sep 8, 2011 12:28 pm • link • report

However, one thing that made the London maps useful, were the clearly visible and relatively simple bus stop ID's: As opposed to WMATA's five- or six-digit number, a simple one- or two-letter code for the surrounding stops only, was quite adequate.

by Kevin Cole on Sep 8, 2011 12:29 pm • link • report

@Kevin Cole
The 7 digit stop ID numbers are the regional stop ID numbers for all the bus stops in the Metro area. I personally think Metro should have gone with 5 digits to make things easier because at times, it hard to remember the exact stop ID number, but they have different stop ID numbers in the scheduling system that are different from the stops in NextBus.

by Ken Conaway on Sep 8, 2011 12:33 pm • link • report

This is cool, but I think people in DC who want or need to figure out how to catch a bus do so without much difficulty. I've done it for years.

Unfortunately, many people still find the buses- especially those in NE DC- scary, which is why they don't take them. I'm amazed at the number of people I've met who've lived in DC for years who have NEVER taken a bus. I tried to organize an event on H street once, but was turned down because it's not "metro accessible" and asking people to take a bus was out of the question.

by Tom A. on Sep 8, 2011 12:49 pm • link • report

Love it. I remember spider maps from when I was in London and they made taking the bus so simple.

by Phil on Sep 8, 2011 12:52 pm • link • report

This is mind-blowingly useful. I live in Truxton Circle, not even H Street, and still this map is more helpful than anything I've seen on the WMATA website. I found four different bus routes I never would have taken otherwise. I wouldn't be at all surprised if maps like this paid for themselves several times over through increased ridership.

by Shannon on Sep 8, 2011 12:57 pm • link • report

The map is fantastic! Great job. I would suggest that the D6 be included, as it runs from downtown to the neighborhood along D St NE, only 4 blocks from the H St corridor.

by Will on Sep 8, 2011 12:58 pm • link • report

That said I do understand that you have to draw the boundaries for the center of the spider somewhere.

by Will on Sep 8, 2011 12:59 pm • link • report

Whoa, this is awesome. I really wish Metro would spend a little more time thinking about its customers/passengers like you've done here.

I have been in DC 10+ years and while I have taught myself the bus routes that are convenient for stuff I do, I am regularly flummoxed by trying to go anywhere off my beaten path. Maps similar to what you've done, particularly if they were smart-phone enabled, would be an excellent reform of the current bus information available from Metro.

I wonder if bus ridership would increase if people understood better where they could go? I'd guess so.

by Anon2 on Sep 8, 2011 1:00 pm • link • report

Peter, that's great work. I like the way you've balanced a large set of design objectives, and used distortion to highlight the region while maintaining geographic recognizability. I'm looking forward to discussing with you at the hack day!

I think showing routes along a single backbone was the right choice in this case -- so many people are walking H Street that the proper boundary for the neighborhood extends the whole length of it. (For reference, you might look at what San Francisco did to try to demystify their very complex Market St. backbone: http://transit.511.org/static/providers/maps/SF_10262010101811.gif)

What's the shaded light yellow region? I don't see it referred to in your legend or your post -- is that a 20/30 minute travel time boundary?

by Matt Caywood on Sep 8, 2011 1:09 pm • link • report

This is a fantastic map! Two suggestions: 1) Include each stop's NextBus ID underneath its name so users can quickly look up real-time info. 2) If a bus is traveling on a route, such as 8th Street, label the line, not each stop, with that information. This is done, for example, on the NYC subway map. It both reduces clutter and lets the user more quickly understand a bus's route. Well done!

by Stephen Miller on Sep 8, 2011 1:11 pm • link • report

@Matt Caywood - The light yellow is about a one-mile radius from the central area. It includes every stop, whereas the outside area only shows major stops. (A box just below Florida Ave. gives this info.)

by Peter Dunn on Sep 8, 2011 1:19 pm • link • report

Could you possibly do a map for Southern Towers? That area is just as confusing. Every time I try to get a bus to the Pentagon from there, I have no idea which side to stand. One for the Pentagon would be really interesting to see.

by Ken Conaway on Sep 8, 2011 1:23 pm • link • report

@Ken Conaway

And yet the various local agencies that have deployed AVL have chosen to use their own stop numbers, rather than adopting WMATA's regional numbering scheme; ART uses their own stop numbers in Connexionz, and Ride On has also used their own stop numbers for whatever it is that they're deploying (something on top of OrbCAD, as far as I know), and of course none of that correlates with what's in the GTFS feed.

Related to Kevin Cole's point, though, WMATA could do a much better job of identifying stops at stations and major transfer points. These identifiers don't have to be unique, since they're only used to correlate between physical stops and maps at that station, akin to what you see in London. WMATA tries to do this in the emergency evacuation maps, yet, bizarrely, they note that "The lettered discs on this map will help you locate the bus stop or bay near this station. Be advised they are not displayed at the on street bus stops." Why not? How hard could it be to mount a lettered disc to the top of the pole? I find that baffling.

by Kurt Raschke on Sep 8, 2011 1:28 pm • link • report

And people say H Street is hard to get to.

I'm printing a huge copy of this for the back of my bedroom door. Super useful

by East_H on Sep 8, 2011 1:30 pm • link • report

@Ken Conaway

Yeah, I understand the use of the numeric codes for NextBus, and various apps. However, from a more "analog" perspective, London's local lettering system, integrating each map with the surrounding stops made life very easy without a smartphone.

(It's not an either/or situation. List both the "global" ID and a "local" ID, add an RFID chip somewhere, etc.)

by Kevin Cole on Sep 8, 2011 1:43 pm • link • report

To answer the first question (and to disagree with Tom A.): YES! I would ride more if the system was easier to understand, as this accomplishes.

I understand my own line by my house, and I can plan a trip somewhere new (with some effort) if I have time and intenet before hand. But extemporaneous riding? No, never. It would be great if, for an example, when an afternoon took me to H St. NE (an only occasional destination for me), I could easily and confidently select the bus home.

Bravo to this idea!

by Sara on Sep 8, 2011 1:47 pm • link • report

Excellent map.

People complain because of the maps, but also because of the lag time. You could birth a child before a 90's bus comes along on the weekends.

by greent on Sep 8, 2011 1:50 pm • link • report

This is great! Only one glitch: you forgot about the 96.

They have similar maps for the Paris bus system, which was easy as pie to figure out when I lived there. It took me a couple of months to get comfortable with my bus options in each neighborhood I've lived in here in DC. This would make the bus a lot more accessible!

by Liz on Sep 8, 2011 1:52 pm • link • report

This is actually pretty cool. However I think the wmata's "next bus" thing is even better.

Funny thing is that when I moved here, for a minute I lived in MD and had to figure out how to get from suitland to springfield. Although this would be huge improvement over the current map design, I've fared pretty well using the existing one.

by HogWash on Sep 8, 2011 1:53 pm • link • report

I will say that it does seem as if lots of DC-area residents are "uncomfortable" riding buses here.

by HogWash on Sep 8, 2011 1:55 pm • link • report

Excellent. Very important in DC where lots of people will ride trains regularly but consider buses foreign.

Two changes I might make: more clearly mark the street names along which buses run (outside the focus area but within the mile radius) and vary line thickness to represent service frequency. Awesome job on the use of color--I think that accomplishes so much. It reminds me of Paris' bus maps which I loved.

by Jon Morgan on Sep 8, 2011 1:58 pm • link • report

Another point I think Jarrett Walker has made esp. in reference to Vancouver: there is great freedom in making a transit network feel casual--spontaneous. When it doesn't feel like you have to worry how often your bus comes, and it's easy to figure out how to get where you're going, taking transit feels easier and thus more attractive to use. I lived in Adams Morgan for 4 years and made a point of learning all its bus routes, but most people in my building didn't know them and might well take a cab instead or not make a trip at all, considering an area too far or difficult to reach. This kind of map, for a comparatively small investment, could help achieve the very important goal of moving more trips from cars to transit, as well as increasing peoples' sense of mobility/where they can get to easily and quickly.

I have GOT to get _Transit Maps of the World_ for my birthday! :)

by Jon Morgan on Sep 8, 2011 2:06 pm • link • report

I thought this would be a great way to improve bus usage. I rarely use buses currently. I usually don't know where any of them go or how frequently they run. This would address both without being overly cluttered. I would love one for each area of the city, so that I could bring one up on command for any place I might want to visit and how to get home each night.

by Paul on Sep 8, 2011 2:07 pm • link • report

I love this map and would love to see ones like it for neighborhoods all across the city. However, I do question whether or not lack of a good map (or even the knowledge of where buses go) is what keeps people from taking buses. I try and only use the bus (walk, bikeshare, Metro and Zipcar secondly) and most of my friends (and wife) know that I only ride the bus and know the system pretty well. Yet still, after a baseball game, I try and take everyone with me to catch a 70 bus over at Half and O and no one goes. They just don't want to ride the bus. They are much more comfortable waiting and waiting in line for the Metro and dealing with broken escalators, stop-and-go trains, dim lights, rude station managers, gangs of thugs, etc etc than walking one block to catch a bus (and we live in Mt. Vernon Square so we wouldn't even have to transfer!). And like the commentor said about his friends that won't go to H Street because of the lack of transportation options - I had someone tell me once that they won't go there because there aren't any cabs to pick you up and take you home. Groan

I think it's unfortunate, but the perception of buses is just very low in DC (among middle and higher-income classes - with the exception of the D5, L2, 38B and D6 and 30's going West) and I'm not sure it's just helpful maps that are going to make a difference. We have a great fleet of buses, great drivers (with the exception (possibly) of that guy who got in a fight), and they go EVERYWHERE; it's time people stop living underground like moles and rediscover the bus! I'm just not sure what the silver bullet (if there is one) is to make more people recognize how great the buses really are.

by Shipsa01 on Sep 8, 2011 2:19 pm • link • report

One more point. One of GGW's other posts on bus mapping notes that WMATA resisted spider maps or frequency mapping because most bus riders already know where the buses go. This is what I call the Jurassic Park problem: you don't find what you're not looking for. Transit agencies are heavy on practicality but often light on vision. They rationalize not changing by saying their current practices serve riders just fine. But that's only CURRENT riders. They're usually not thinking about how to attract new riders (which could justify more frequent service that benefits everyone). WMATA's existing bus maps may be fine for existing bus riders, but this spider map, and frequency maps, are probably aimed less at existing riders and more at *potential* riders. That seems like a significant distinction. And a void that needs filling.

by Jon Morgan on Sep 8, 2011 2:26 pm • link • report

This is a great map. What is up with those lines that just stop at the border with Trinidad?

by NikolasM on Sep 8, 2011 2:57 pm • link • report

Very impressive effort. I do think including stop ID numbers would crowd the map.

by Richard Layman on Sep 8, 2011 3:04 pm • link • report

I think it's unfortunate, but the perception of buses is just very low in DC (among middle and higher-income classes - with the exception of the D5, L2, 38B and D6 and 30's going West)

I think that is more true when we talk about DC-area transplants. And west of Rock Creek Park, many riders are completley fine with taking the bus (N2, N4). Many middle and upper class DC natives are fine with taking the bus.....

by AA on Sep 8, 2011 3:10 pm • link • report

@NikolasM - Those lines are the westbound D routes. I don't show their path through Trinidad because it's a map of where the buses go from the focus area, not where they come from. (Same with the line for the B2 on 15th.) It's usually the same general route anyway, so you can roughly use the map to get to the area as well as from it, but the map's detail is for the riders who are already there.

by Peter Dunn on Sep 8, 2011 3:15 pm • link • report

Ah, gotcha.

by NikolasM on Sep 8, 2011 3:29 pm • link • report

@ Peter - just to follow-up on that question and answer with NikolasM, if they wouldn't have made that much 'clutter' or that much difference why leave them off (re: Westbound D's and B2)? I see the point about it being for only people that are already in the H Street area, but if you're there and see the bus comes from your house (say Potomac Avenue), it would be beneficial as well? Thoughts?

by Shipsa01 on Sep 8, 2011 3:56 pm • link • report

@Shipsa01 - Well, it can get cluttered pretty quickly. The two D route directions rejoin pretty quickly, but the B2, for example, is split for most of the way to Potomac Ave, then again in Anacostia. They also make different stops, so you’d have to double the number of stop names listed, and make extra clear which one serves which direction. Ideally, if you’re at Potomac Ave and need to know where you can catch the B2 up to H Street, you’d have a separate Potomac Ave spider map with all the detail you need.

by Peter Dunn on Sep 8, 2011 4:14 pm • link • report

Thanks, Peter for the response. Makes perfect sense.

by Shipsa01 on Sep 8, 2011 4:42 pm • link • report

Beautiful, readable and useful. Thank you Peter for showing us what can be!

by Tom Fairchild on Sep 8, 2011 5:53 pm • link • report

Frankly, in my years in the city, most of my scariest experiences on buses in terms of passengers happened on the 30 series on Wisconsin Ave between Friendship Heights and Lafayette Square. My worst experiences with the X2 in NE are nothing compared to the 30s in NW.

by dcseain on Sep 8, 2011 6:19 pm • link • report

Amazing. Send that sucker to Metro.

by A-lo on Sep 8, 2011 7:40 pm • link • report

@ dcseain and AA - yes, I guess my first comment had a bit of hyperbole to it, but the point of it was about the 'perception' of buses that "most" people have here in DC. For the record, I have only had two somewhat bad experiences (man excreting on bus and bad fight) on the bus - knock on wood - and both were on the 30's - one around Farragut heading West and one by the Archives, respectively.

by Shipsa01 on Sep 8, 2011 7:50 pm • link • report

Very clear map. graphically clean, well articulated effort and reflects an amazing amount of good editing. As an exercise in graphic design alone it is very good. Why don't we see solutions like this coming from DDOT which is very focused on finding car free solutions?

by Patrick on Sep 9, 2011 10:24 am • link • report

Patrick: Governments don't generally hire very many graphic designers, since that's not something voters and leaders generally want to see a lot of budget being spent on.

This is why it's great to have open transit data. There are many, many more people that don't work for the government than those that do, and this leverages their abilities.

I'm not upset with DDOT and WMATA for not doing this themselves. We should recognize that running transportation is their core competency, and the many great designers and coders out there can do things that they just won't ever have the money or the organizational orientation to do. The best agencies eagerly work with people outside to encourage them to do things like this and then perhaps bring the best of the innovations (and people) in-house.

by David Alpert on Sep 9, 2011 10:59 am • link • report

shipsa01 -- u r right that while maps are very important, transit marketing, especially for bus services, which by definition are less appealing to choice riders, is a lot more than just making better maps.

Still, I make a point that bus shelters are key touchpoints for marketing transit and the quality of the design of the shelter and marketing communications products at the shelter (signage, maps and other materials in shelters, design of the bus) communicates-markets the system. Hot maps, great bus designs, signage, etc., is a fundamental component.

Especially because people walk by shelters and bus stops whether or not they use the service. Since transit isn't really marketed, the shelters and signs are the closest to marketing that transit systems might be doing.

There is a report out that is excellent on marketing transit. http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/2011/07/amazing-new-report-on-transit-marketing.html

There is also the More Riders publication and website which I've meant to try to write for, but haven't gotten around to it.

WRT Jon Morgan's comment about Jarrett Walker, I think the point of his you are referring to is the "high frequency transit network" concept as a subnetwork of the overall system. It's not just a map thing.

It's about how certain bus lines have a "high frequency." Portland, Minneapolis, and Montreal do this among others.

- http://www.cat-bus.com/2010/08/towards-a-frequent-network-map-for-montreal/

In DC, the Circulator combines this concept with the branding identity stuff that gets people all excited.

- http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/2010/12/methodology-for-determining-transit.html

From the standpoint of Kevin Lynch's point about "legibility" (of cities but extended to transit), with the graphic design identity of the Circulator combined with the frequency, you have a more legible bus service, as a subset of what appears to be a not very understandable network.

by Richard Layman on Sep 9, 2011 12:30 pm • link • report

DEAR GOD, this is WONDERFUL. I'm another person who has constantly been disappointed by MetroBus' lack of useful signage, after navigating myself around unknown parts of London for several years. I'm saving your mock-up, since I never can remember how to navigate myself around from my neighborhood, anyway!

The other thing that I love about London's signage, and sorely miss everywhere else, are the signs that say which direction the bus is going at the stop - so you can always make sure you're standing on the correct side of the street.

by Woyce on Sep 9, 2011 1:01 pm • link • report

@Peter Dunn, as a fellow LSE Beaver, let me say well done! You've done TFL proud and rendered a great service to DC bus riders and potential bus riders alike!

by Matt Eldridge on Sep 9, 2011 1:27 pm • link • report

Why is there a need to spoonfeed people info on how to get places. If people want to go somewhere they should research it go to WMATA's website and Google/Bing/Yahoo maps and figure it out.

by kk on Sep 9, 2011 9:41 pm • link • report

This is great. I've lived along H St for 7 months and I'm frequently walking 12 minutes to Union Station just to take the Metro 2 or 3 stops. I've seen buses go by my house but never knew where they went. Looking forward to this saving some time and, more importantly, expanding my range of travel!

by Mark K on Sep 12, 2011 11:45 am • link • report

I had another thought about these bus stop ids, the point that Stephen Miller made.

While I still think that adding ids to every stop would unnecessarily clutter the map:

(1) are there bus ids generally, as opposed to stop ids? (I don't use this service, so I don't know how it works exactly.)

(2) in any case, you could put a couple of ids at the map at key locations, e.g., at 8th and H, 14th and H, 11th and H, 6th and H, etc., because that is going to get you the info that you basically need, without having to drill down to every stop.

On another point, I think I agree with the person who suggested including the D6. It's close enough to the corridor to impact travel decisions. And just including it in an equivalent "Capitol Hill" spider map might not be enough.

by Richard Layman on Sep 13, 2011 2:10 pm • link • report

Did anyone see Tom Toles "interpretation" of a "spider map" on the Washington Post Opinion page for 9/12. ;-)

(You can see it if you suffer through the ad at http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/tom-toles-goes-local/2011/03/03/ABNG4Gs_gallery.html)

by Kevin Cole on Sep 14, 2011 12:42 pm • link • report

The Toles cartoon is also here: http://www.gocomics.com/tomtoles/2011/09/12

by Matt Caywood on Sep 14, 2011 3:36 pm • link • report

Both times it appears, "Gallaudet" is spelled incorrectly. Please fix, it's a great map!

by Meredith on Sep 24, 2011 1:49 am • link • report