Sample TTCMap.jpg

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REPRESENTING OUR CITY - A NEW TRANSIT MAP FOR TORONTO!


Toronto, at times, can be especially talented at under-representing itself — maybe due to Canadian modesty. The design of our transit system map might be one of those times.

Toronto’s subway map models itself after classic systems such as New York and London, displaying our subway as separate from the rest of the network. Because of this technique of ‘isolation as clarification,’ our City is rendered as provincial; four lines surrounded by a vast field of black emptiness. This is the map used in guidebooks to describe transit. According to it, Toronto has very little to offer.

It’s interesting however, that when explaining to a visitor where to go in the City, it’s usually to a place in the ‘blackness’ – a place which according to the main map doesn’t exist and is impossible to get to. But when looking to the full system map for transit clarification, one is overloaded with technical schematic more suited to engineers than the general public. Usually it’s faster just to ask someone.

Toronto has North America’s largest streetcar network. The network itself is perhaps the urban gesture which best describes the City, at least downtown. This is in part thanks to Hans Blumenfeld, the infamous Metro planner who left the US during the McCarthy era. While much of the US was tearing down their streetcars, he ensured ours remained. (That Blumenfeld was also the architect behind the Spadina and Corsstown Expressway is an irony). Today the streetcar is in many ways the jewel of the system, and key to plans for expansion into light rail. Our streetcars are celebrated; both as a civic icons, and for the neighbourhoods they define.

Connectivity is the real success of Toronto’s system. Streetcar exchanges at Broadview and St. Clair West, and GO transfers at Kipling and Dundas West are examples of what makes the system work. Most transit riders don’t use the subway in isolation, but transfer between multiple modes. Yet finding the best rout is often a matter of trial and error; a trade secret among experienced riders. Clearly illustrating the connections within the network would show the extensiveness of the system we already have, and hint at the areas best suited for future expansion.

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 Stewart

1. Excellent idea.

   Posted by  on  05/08  at  12:51 PM

2. Aaah nice job Graeme, I’d been waiting for this one to hit the ‘net for the masses to enjoy!

   Posted by Rajio  on  05/08  at  01:19 PM

3. Very nicely done. This way, Toronto and the TTC can be accurately represented rather than appear to be a suburb of Yellowknife (OK, I exaggerate…).

   Posted by Genet  on  05/08  at  02:14 PM

4. Love the idea.
   Good luck with the lawsuit. :-)

   Posted by Sean Galbraith  on  05/08  at  02:26 PM

5. I think Boston is probably the best example, its clever Green Line (streetcar) almost looks like a subway on the map until it gets out of the tunnel.

   really though, the city does not need any encouragement to focus new development exclusively on surface routes. the subway needs to be expanded. the distance from yonge to dufferin on the subway is shorter than on the queen streetcar by a factor of at least 5. it is a shame that the fight for new subway lines downtown is lost :(

   only ROWs really belong on a subway map.

   Posted by kevin  on  05/08  at  07:00 PM

6. I think you have the GO stops markham to agincourt in reverse order?

   Posted by  on  05/08  at  07:30 PM

7. How about the YRT system, to cover the Finch to Richmond Hill/Markham areas? Booming commercial and tourist areas…

   Posted by  on  05/08  at  08:26 PM

8. SF shows the Muni streetcars and the BART trains together on their maps, worked for me when i was there visiting. TO’s TTC’s got it, so it should flaunt it. ‘Hood overlays are a nice touch!

   Posted by  on  05/09  at  05:30 PM

9. Graeme,

   first off, great idea on developing this map and with it, opening the debate on the current map.

   A few thoughts. I think that the current TTC map and your maps do not have to be mutually exclusive and can comfortably co-exist. They provide views of different modes of transit, and will clearly have different audiences. For many users of the system, the “four lines surrounded by a vast field of black emptiness” may in fact be enough. The tourist staying downtown is not particularly interested in the commuter rail network extending to suburbia, other than to feel some connection to his/her daily routine at home.

   On the other hand, the family traveling into Toronto by GO Train on the weekend for the Ex will find the Go, subway and street car interconnections extremely useful.

   Many transit authorities provide of single and multi-modal versions of their transit maps. Transport for London offers the Underground map, featuring the Tube and Docklands Light Rail. TFL also offers (in conjunction with the private rail companies) detailed maps illustrating the commuter train and rail networks.

   Most German urban centres (Stuttgart and Berlin combined provide both U-Bahn only, S-Bahn only and combined maps.

   I welcome your map’s addition to GTA’s transit authorities’ portfolio of maps.

   Finally, Toronto’s streetcars may, in fact, be celebrated as civic icons and for the neighbourhoods they define. London’s Routemasters once were. However, they were also largely inaccessible for the elderly, the disabled, parents with children, etc. Regardless of how iconic the streetcars are, I fear the current rolling stock may face a similar fate.

   Posted by Marko  on  05/09  at  11:08 PM

10. there is always the “downtown routes map” which includes subway and surface transit in the important areas ;)

    Posted by kevin  on  05/10  at  12:07 PM

11. Very well done. (one thing: I think that “Cabagetown” should read “Cabbagetown.”

    Posted by  on  05/10  at  01:18 PM

12. Fabulous idea and an excellent map. Where can I buy one? I’ll use the JPG for now, it’s exactly what’s been missing all these years.

    Posted by  on  05/21  at  09:05 AM

13. Great maps.
    The two cents I’ll add is that Toronto has a built-in distance scale that could be emphasized on such maps – the old concession roads. Once you know which ones they are you can estimate travel time and distance easily. (N-S= Queen, Bloor, St. Clair, Eglinton, Lawrence, York Mills/Wilson, Sheppard, Finch, Steels, and up; E-W=Leslie, Bayview, Yonge, Bathurst, Dufferin, Keele, Jane – the grid breaks apart further east and west) They are about 2km (1.9km) apart. Using this scale, the maps have weirdly stretched and compressed different areas of the city – which is somewhat misleading to people unfamiliar with it.

    Posted by Zanis  on  10/26  at  07:27 PM

14. Greame, you are a beast of a man and man amongst beasts.

    Posted by Ingmar  on  10/29  at  10:13 PM

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