Newsstand: February 9, 2010
Bob Kinnear isn't Greg Kinnear
Duly Quoted: Adam Giambrone
Newsstand: February 8, 2010
Scale Model City, Actual-Size Grime
That little black map on the back of TTC system maps is woefully inadequate. The map currently only shows Toronto's subway stops and the RT which don't even come close to covering the city's vast area. Graeme Stewart on Reading Toronto proposes that the system redesign the map to include streetcars.
"Toronto has North America’s largest streetcar network. The network itself is perhaps the urban gesture which best describes the City, at least downtown."
His maps (one of them is shown here) would include the city's many streetcar lines and other modes of transit. As a representation it would give the everyday user a better idea of just how expansive our system actually is.
Many cities have been successful representing their systems as an integrated network. For example, Paris shows it’s Metro with the RER, as does Montreal. Berlin pairs the U-Bahn with S-Bahn as well as light rail, and Stuttgart its subway with trams. If we adopt this ‘system’ approach to representation, Transit in Toronto suddenly looks like something to be proud of.
Graeme, we couldn't agree more. More importantly, TTC are you listening?
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Damn, I'd been thinking of doing just this same thing too.
They are listening, and will promptly sue him.
i am surprised, i thought san francisco might have had a larger streetcar network but i am mistaken!
although boston is the best example of a city that includes light rail along with its subway: the fact that the green line travels underground a great deal of its distance does not mean that it isn't a CLRV
LOL Sean, the scary thing is that I bet you someone at the TTC thought of it. Fortunately Graeme was pretty smart. He didn't use any TTC logos, slogans or identifying marks. I don't think the TTC has a trademark on the letters TTC, do they?
Afraid the TTC does have a registered trademark for those letters:
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/app/cipo/trademarks/search/viewTrademark.do;jsessionid=0000FoutBdspxx6roHv-uDkfbr_:vjite1ad?language=eng&fileNumber=0732380&extension=0&startingDocumentIndexOnPage=1
Their protection is limited to using the trademark for "construction, maintenance, operation and management of a public transportation system", but publishing a map of the system definitely falls into that characterization. But you could label the map, say, "Toronto Transit System"......
This map (that made the rounds a while back) shows how big the ttc system is compared to other North American transit systems:
http://www.radicalcartography.net/index.html?subways
Toronto's not too shabby when it comes to distance covered, though there are only a few lines.
Pretty slick. Thought you all might be interested in this, as well. I'm working my way through Gmaps, eventually tackling an API.
grille1 - You might want to check this out: http://crazedmonkey.com/toronto-transit-map/