Morrison – PUBLIC TRANSPORT MAPS IN WESTERN EUROPEAN CITIES 1996

Description

Alastair Morrison’s 1995 survey of 25 Western European cities identifies distinct public-transport cartographic traditions—most notably French (one colour per service), classic (one line per street with route numbers), Scandinavian (classic applied to sub‑networks) and a refined Dutch variant—and derives practical design rules. Choice depends on number of modes, service count, route overlap and colour availability: French-style schematisation is best for tracing individual routes and termini (effective when ≤9 distinguishable colours or grouped services), while the classic style better communicates which services use a given street. Schematic maps suit underground and rail but are inappropriate for buses. Morrison stresses base‑map detail, map size/context, clear terminus labelling, careful inset handling (prefer computer-driven central enlargement to confusing insets), and background colour (a single pale grey often gives best line contrast). As networks grow he advocates automated, computer-generated subsets—single-route, stop-specific and “octopus” district maps—and integrated GIS/graphics workflows. Practical rules include curving lines at junctions, labelling every link, indicating direction and avoiding ambiguous hyphens.