Riverline Transit Authority · 2026
A transit map riders can read in the rain
A new illustrated system map for a mid-sized city's buses, trams and two river ferries, printed for 140 stations and shrunk down for the rider app.
The problem
Riverline's old map had grown by accretion for twenty years. Every new bus route was squeezed in by a different contractor, the ferries were drawn as dotted lines nobody noticed, and the legend needed its own legend. Rider surveys kept pointing at the same complaint: people could not tell which stops connected to the tram without walking to the platform and checking the sign.
The brief was strict. The map had to print at A0 for station panels and at A5 for a folded pocket version, stay legible for riders with low vision and color blindness, use the authority's existing four route colors, and export to a vector file the app team could tile and zoom. Fourteen weeks, one public consultation in the middle, and a launch date tied to the new ferry timetable.
Process
- 01
Thumbnails on tracing paper
I started on paper with a simplified river and the eleven busiest stops, testing three geometries: true geography, a strict 45-degree diagram and a softened hybrid. Riders in two consultation sessions picked the hybrid, because it kept the river bends that people use to orient themselves while straightening the routes enough to follow with a finger.
- 02
Color and contrast scripts
With four fixed route colors I could not add hues, so I separated routes with line weight, casing and pattern instead. Every pairing was checked against deuteranopia and protanopia simulations and a printed proof under station lighting. Ferries got a wave-patterned line and small hand-drawn boats at each pier, which made them the most noticed change in testing.
- 03
Vector final with drawn landmarks
The network was built as clean vector in Illustrator on a 2 mm grid so the app team could tile it. Twenty-two landmarks, from the covered market to the old lift bridge, were inked by hand, scanned and traced as single-color vector icons. They sit quietly behind the routes and give riders something to recognize before they read a name.
Selected images
Outcome
The map went up in all 140 stations the week the ferry timetable changed, and the pocket version ran out in the first month and went to a second printing. The app team now uses the same master file, so every future route change is edited once and published everywhere.
- 140
- stations with new panels
- 38%
- fewer wayfinding questions
- 2nd
- print run of pocket map
Our complaints line used to be half wayfinding questions. Six months after the new map went up, that share dropped to a third of what it was. Riders talk about the little boats.
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