Schematic Transit Diagram

スキーマティック路線図 / 1933– / Layout / Information Design

Discards geographic accuracy for horizontal, vertical and 45-degree lines with evenly spaced stations. Beck's 1933 London Underground diagram established it as the common language of transit maps worldwide.

Schematic Transit Diagram — Contemporary example of a schematic transit map (CC BY-SA 3.0) · © Oslo_Metro_diagram.svg : Arsenikk derivative work: Arsenikk (talk) — Contemporary example of a schematic transit map (CC BY-SA 3.0) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Oslo_Metro_diagram.svg : Arsenikk derivative work: Arsenikk (talk)

Schematic Transit Diagram — Berlin U-Bahn route diagram — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Arbalete — Berlin U-Bahn route diagram — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Arbalete

At a glance

Visual cues

Lines limited to 45 degrees
Evenly spaced stations
Color-coded lines
Independence from geography

Best used for

Reducing a complex network to what riders need, stations and interchanges
Showing a process or line where order matters more than geography

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Dictionary entry

Type: Set station names at one constant angle in a single face and size
Composition: Only horizontal, vertical and 45 degrees, even spacing, widened where stations crowd
Material: One color per line, white circles for interchanges, plain background behind
Caution: Trying to keep a little geographic accuracy breaks the angle rule, and the diagram ends up neither accurate nor easy to read.
Further study: Harry Beck / the idea borrowed from circuit diagrams / the Vignelli New York subway map controversy

Related entries

Isotype (アイソタイプ)Same Information Design lineage.Compare Schematic Transit Diagram and Isotype
Pictogram System (案内用ピクトグラム)Same Information Design lineage.Compare Schematic Transit Diagram and Pictogram System

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