Work in Progress – Victoria Frequent Transit Map

Unlike my previous mapping project for Victoria, this latest one uses only existing services. This is an attempt to improve the clarity of the current Victoria bus network, and create a legible, usable map. The end goal is to print a physical map, sized 24″x18″ (which would fold down to 4″x9″, matching the size of the current Rider’s Guide). Victoria and the West Shore are on one side, and the Peninsula is on the reverse. As a single piece, it’s 24″x36″, which could potentially be used as a poster at bus shelters.

Victoria Frequent Transit Map

There are two primary purposes for this map: to make routes clearly to follow, and to show different levels of service frequency.

The larger print size does help make the routes more legible, but I’ve also simplified (and somewhat distorted) the geography and separated as many routes as possible into their own lines. Streets/routes have also been simplified, mostly using a 15º grid.

For the different frequency levels, I’ve set three line thicknesses for daytime service levels: one for 15 minutes or better, one for 30 minutes or better, and one for 60 minutes or better. Anything less than 60 minutes gets a dashed treatment. Limited stop service is displayed as an inline dash for any of these frequencies.

Then I set three different services types:

Commuter routes operate only Monday to Friday, at peak hours.

Regular routes operate all day, Monday to Friday, with most operating on weekends and in evenings.

Frequent routes operate seven days a week, with 15 minute or better service 7am–10pm Monday to Friday and 8am–6pm Saturday, with 30 minute service or better at all other times.

Each service type has its own colour and line design.

Some Regular routes operate 15 minutes or better, but not in evenings or on weekends (such as 2/2A and 11), so they keep the same thickness as the Frequent routes but have Regular colouring.

At this point, this map has gone through numerous revisions and I’ve redrawn it about 4 times already. Originally I had designed it to be much larger, but then chose to consider a smaller map that would be easier to handle physically. I also showed a fourth service type (Express) but with only three routes meeting that criteria, it just added unnecessary noise. Type has changed, colours have changed. Right now only a small portion of the map is what I would call ‘final’. There’s still a lot of work to do, but at least at this point I’ve nailed down the sizing. Now I’ve just got to draw the rest of it out.

At some point in the future, I will post the final map and also a comparison with the existing Victoria transit map. Hope no one changes any services until then!


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