Atrocious maps

[Mr X]

Whoever did the TL network maps should be sacked.

Examples:
http://translink.com.au/resources/travel-information/network-information/maps/region/100701-southern.pdf
http://translink.com.au/resources/travel-information/network-information/maps/region/120701-sunshine-coast.pdf
http://translink.com.au/resources/travel-information/network-information/maps/region/110606-western.pdf

Void of detail, cluttered, messy, disorganised and downright confusing. The maps don't even have information on street names, landmarks etc. except for bus stations and interchange points. How useless is that!?

[HappyTrainGuy]

What woffle. Best maps in the world. Easy to underseand. Everyone knows where Green straight line road, Pothole Maroon road or Purple squiggly loop street is. If you can't understand the Tangled Rope Logan Central section on the southside then you.. should be... sacked.... who am I kidding... What the hell is with these maps haha. They look like my drawings when I was a kid. Nice attention to detail; all neat together then BARGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHZIZZAGFTW!!

[SurfRail]

It is convenient that you have posted this thread now Mr X.  They appear to have just released the long-awaited Gold Coast version.

http://translink.com.au/resources/travel-information/network-information/maps/region/120601-gold-coast.pdf

It appears to be the version which I was given a sneak peek of recently by GCCC late last year.  I pointed out numerous basic flaws (which they agreed with, they were equally dissatisfied given that they put substantial funding in TransLink's coffers and get nothing back).  Even though the GCCC guys passed on my comments, it appears TTA did not acknowledge any of them or do anything to fix them.

Sigh...

[Fares_Fair]

Clear as macrame really ...

[triplethree]

Yeah, Mr X, TransLink's kindergarten-style maps really really really get on my goat as well. I've ranted about similar low-quality efforts before. Check this thread out ... it was my very first post to RBOT about two months ago

http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=8298.msg97192#msg97192

BTW, about those TransLink regional maps you linked to ... they're schematic diagrams. They're just there to show the basic topology (i.e. intersection, adjacency, relative direction, etc.) of the route network. Topological/schematic diagrams work well for, say, a railway system, where you only need to know the names of your origin station and your destination station to find out how to travel between the two. But for a bus route with stops every 300 metres or so that goes on a milk run through suburban backstreets? If you don't know which damn street a bus goes down -- how the hell are you going to catch it? Mental telepathy with the bus driver? Perhaps a water-divining stick that will point the way to the appropriate bus stop? Ditto goes for knowing where buses connect to one another outside of major interchanges.

[#Metro]

Void of detail, cluttered, messy, disorganised and downright confusing. The maps don't even have information on street names, landmarks etc. except for bus stations and interchange points. How useless is that!?

Let's not forget that the network itself is also VERY complex too. Complex network = complex map.
This is why I am a BIG fan of steam iron and cuts. So confusing!

Also, I noticed today three or four asian ladies trying to work out what the Northern Busway map was doing and where everything went - they were trying to trace a route with their fingers over the map, but because there are so many routes and lines everywhere it's a mess.

The sooner we get a decent CFN map, the better!

[triplethree]

There is indeed a complex network in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, but for all the other parts of South East Queensland, the bus networks are quite simple. It'd be easy-peasy to draw a map for, say, Ipswich or Logan.

Brisbane Transport services, even with their complexity, could be mapped but you'd have to divide the city into five or six regions with each region on its own sheet - sort of like what State Transit does for its Sydney Buses regional maps.

One thing that would be almost impossible to map though - bus services in the Brisbane CBD. Yeeeouch. Only way I can think of doing it is to use the existing CBD bus stop location map (which doesn't show routes, only the stop numbers), and on the reverse side of the map, plot a table of routes showing the stops serviced by each route.

[malcolmx]

Perhaps Translink should follow Metlink's (PTV) example and use the Brisway base map, rather than drawing lines in the middle of empty space. For example, in Melbourne:
http://ptv.vic.gov.au/assets/Maps/Localities/PDFs/33_Monash_LAM.pdf

Accessed from: http://ptv.vic.gov.au/maps-stations-stops/local-area-travel-information/

[somebody]

One thing that would be almost impossible to map though - bus services in the Brisbane CBD. Yeeeouch. Only way I can think of doing it is to use the existing CBD bus stop location map (which doesn't show routes, only the stop numbers), and on the reverse side of the map, plot a table of routes showing the stops serviced by each route.

That is actually half done.  Look at this map: http://translink.com.au/resources/travel-information/network-information/maps/interchange/adelaide-street.pdf

[SurfRail]

One thing that would be almost impossible to map though - bus services in the Brisbane CBD. Yeeeouch. Only way I can think of doing it is to use the existing CBD bus stop location map (which doesn't show routes, only the stop numbers), and on the reverse side of the map, plot a table of routes showing the stops serviced by each route.

http://www.adelaidemetro.com.au/assets/uploads/CityMap20120618.jpg

They changed this recently - it used to actually depict the routes taken because most of them followed simple corridors (Hills services were green, east-west services were another colour, busway services another, north-south another).  It's not the most pleasant thing but largely unavoidable with so much of the city not covered by rail - at least their CBD has plenty of room and fewer buses to deal with.

[Golliwog]

Perhaps Translink should follow Metlink's (PTV) example and use the Brisway base map, rather than drawing lines in the middle of empty space. For example, in Melbourne:
http://ptv.vic.gov.au/assets/Maps/Localities/PDFs/33_Monash_LAM.pdf

Accessed from: http://ptv.vic.gov.au/maps-stations-stops/local-area-travel-information/

That is exactly what they should do!

[SurfRail]

http://www.sunbus.com.au/documents/Tvillenetworkmap_WR.pdf

This has just come out.  There are some changes which coincide with the cessation of the "Red Bus" service which was Sunbus' equivalent of the CBD Loop here in Brisbane.

This looks like a dramatic improvement over both the TransLink and qconnect formats seen previously.

[triplethree]

http://www.sunbus.com.au/documents/Tvillenetworkmap_WR.pdf

This has just come out.  There are some changes which coincide with the cessation of the "Red Bus" service which was Sunbus' equivalent of the CBD Loop here in Brisbane.

This looks like a dramatic improvement over both the TransLink and qconnect formats seen previously.

Saints alive, a decent public transport map in Queensland. Hope is not lost. Thanks for posting, SR.

[somebody]

But QConnect, not TTA.