Based on my research, I can divide public transit layout into two different kinds of “designs”: 1) a system with a core, usually in the form of a circle, that corresponds to the densest area of the city, and lines that radiate outward from the core, or 2) a system without a core that winds and meanders through the city.

I’ve been researching different layouts for subways in major cities ever since a friend of mine mentioned the subway map for Tokyo. The Tokyo system is interesting because it falls into neither category. There exists a centralized core where a lot of lines cross over one another, but there definitely isn’t a circle or loop line. The map posted below is only a piece of the vast Tokyo subway system and doesn’t even include the extensive rail system. A more complete picture can be found here.

On this video, there is a shot of the Tokyo subway map that looks more logical than the map posted above.

The most regimented looking subway map I’ve seen is of the Moscow public transit. The brown circle allows for easy transfer between the lines that reach out from the core of the city. It looks like a beautiful piece of infrastructure although I don’t understand the stops clustered at the end of each line? I am curious about the distance from the circle line to the stops at the end of the colored lines.

I know that I said in a previous post that you just can’t compare New York public transit to Chicago. For the sole purpose of being contrary to my previous argument, I will put the subway maps alongside one another here for you to judge. The New York City subway doesn’t really have a core or any centralized circle route. New york has far more service lines that saturate the area of the city, while Chicago’s el has a dense core with long fingers reaching to the outskirts of the city. I must admit that Chicago’s el system looks pathetic next to the New York subway map.

Chicago’s el would be greatly improved if they were to build that damn circle line. There has recently been a stink about the connection between Evanston and Skokie on the el. Evanstonians are complaining that they would like for there to be stops along the “skokie swift” yellow line between the Howard stop and Skokie. I would like to throw tomatoes at this idea. The CTA wastes so much money on the purple and yellow lines that connect Chicago to the ‘burbs. I think it is the financial responsibility of the RTA (regional transit authority) and the Metra to connect suburb to city and suburb to suburb. The CTA (chicago transit authority) should be focused on creating better service in the city proper and ensuring that people can transfer easily to the Metra for commuting to the ‘burbs. The CTA is already pouring money into the brown line expansion project to plump up a line that has reached capacity. I would actually like to see the CTA spend money on increasing express lines on the existing lines. The blue line desperately needs an express train during rush hour. I’ll rip the CTA a new one in another post….

Mexico city has a pretty efficient subway system and their design (or lack of design) has no core; lines just run all over the place.

I can’t say which type of layout is best. I will say good public transit responds to the needs of the city- creating dense service where people are clustered, making it easy for people to commute quickly to where the jobs exist, providing many options when rush hour occurs, etc. – instead of merely fixing problems as they come up. I think that you can also frame an argument against Chicago’s Loop after looking at these layouts.  More on this later….

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