The New York-based
Carticulate, which two Twin Cities natives co-founded, has recently come up with a colorful map that lays out future transit lines in the Twin Cities.
Carticulate has also created a Minneapolis skyway map, which The Line covered
here.
Matt Forrest, who is one of the principals of Carticulate, wanted to synthesize the light rail and bus rapid transit projects that are in the works for the Twin Cities, while also showing how they’re interconnected with existing lines.
Other maps that are out there right now "don't give a good idea of what areas are being served, where the stops would be and how it looks to get around that system," he says.
To create a new map, he and his business partner, Kate Chanba, compiled data from various project websites and
Wikipedia.
Then they put together a simplified travel diagram. Done in a subway map-style, it’s “distorted, but cleaner and easier to see,” he says.
It shows that “It’ll be a pretty robust system,” he says, adding that he hopes it opens up alternative transit opportunities for people who might want to rely less on their cars.
The map also showcases Carticulate’s design theory around transit, about which it’s also put out a white paper, he says.
Further down the road, signage for the color-coded map could appear at every bus or train stop, he says. “You could also scan your bus ID and it could tell you when the next bus is coming,” he says. “We’re thinking about how it integrates across the whole system.”
The idea is to make it accessible and easy to scan with a smartphone, he says.
Source: Matt Forrest, Carticulate Maps
Writer: Anna Pratt