Transit Diagrams 🚋

And hear something from #Germany:

A complete day and night services #transitdiagram of the city of #Plauen. Tried to make it look more organic and flowing than the official diagram. Also included the Parkeisenbahn Syratal (electric narrow gauge #railway). #Tram routes 1, 2 and 3 are interlinked to form an operational triangle — that's kind of special.

Feedback appreciated!

See also:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cxm5wUEI2zq/

Sep 25, 2023 at 9:09amWeb
Show threadSimon PolsterSep 25, 2023
@transitdiagrams beautiful! I love the curviness and all the little details.
It took me a little bit to understand that the black lines in the legend only indicate the stroke characteristics but not the color of the objects. Once I understood it it made perfect sense though
Show threadTransit Diagrams 🚋Sep 25, 2023

@cartisan thank you 😊 and happy about the feedback!

I thought black lines is a neutral way to show the mode. The colors are reflected in the route number icons at least. Maybe I could tweak that a bit to make it more obvious?

Show threadSimon PolsterSep 25, 2023
@transitdiagrams I am also not sure how to make it more obvious, after I figured it out it was clear to me as well. Maybe use one of the routes colors and add an "(exemplarisch)" behind the line symbol?
Show threadTransit Diagrams 🚋Sep 25, 2023
@cartisan that will complicate it I suppose but thanks for your suggestion.
Show threadSimon PolsterSep 25, 2023
@transitdiagrams Other small things I noticed (and this is just nitpicking because it is fun to look at your map):
- why are some stations connected by dotted lines and others aren't (for instance "Knielohstr" vs "Capitol")
- "Oberer Bahnhof" is huge (At first i thought that was a small bus line since it is a similar width black line)
- "Tunnel" station is quite confusing. I think clustering the "Endhaltestellen" together makes it visually appealing but difficult to grasp
Show threadTransit Diagrams 🚋Sep 25, 2023

@cartisan
+ the dashes lines are leftovers from an older idea and will be removed.

+ Oberer Bahnhof could become smaller, true, although it is the main station.

+ Tunnel is indeed a bit complicated as it is the central transfer station of the system. Having the night bus termini separated was my was to say that they are not operating at the same time as the other routes. I could repeat the name next too them hence making it clearly.

Show threadIIVQSep 25, 2023
@transitdiagrams @cartisan Nice!
- Very creative, the big Oberer bahnhof (train) dot, to show that it connects to multiple tram stops! Clearer to me than what Paris does with e.g. their Haussmann-St. Lazare complex.
- I am in dubio about showing night lines on the same map as day lines, suggesting transfers that are not there.
Show threadTransit Diagrams 🚋Sep 25, 2023
@IIVQ @cartisan thanks 🙏🏼 the idea showing night buses on there too is not mine but it is in the official map too. I find it strange too. An advantage of this is that you show where night buses and day buses overlap and what to take depending on the service time.
Show threadIIVQSep 25, 2023
@transitdiagrams I love these. Is this done purely in a graphics program (inkscape/illustrator/...) or do you use a GIS program like Qgis for this as well?
Show threadTransit Diagrams 🚋Sep 25, 2023
@IIVQ it was done completely in Affinity Designer
Show threadIIVQSep 25, 2023
@transitdiagrams Never heard of it. It doesn't support my OS/Hardware choice, but the results are nice!
Show threadTransit Diagrams 🚋Sep 25, 2023
@IIVQ it is a vector graphics software like Illustrator or Inkscape or Corel Draw. I switched to Affinity Designer after Adobe started its subscription trap. I wanted a pay-once professional vector graphics without any strings attached.