Regional Trails Article

A map we designed for Pennsylvania Enivronmental Council and the Bicycle Coalition was part of a $23 million TIGER grant application that was awarded yesterday!

Last night, Spencer Finch, at Pennsylvania Environmental Council, told me the Philadelphia Inquirer needed a map for an article.  I emailed the map to John Duchneskie at the Inquirer, and someone there modified it to work in the paper. The resulting  map appeared in a Philadelphia Inquirer Article: New bike paths for region, courtesy of US Stimulus.

The Inquirer did a great job with this map.  Newspaper maps look deceptively simple, but it takes skill to design a good newspaper map.  The end result is to direct the reader to the most relevant information.

Here are some things worth noting about the Inquirer’s map:

• Philadelphia’s white background quickly centers your eye.
• All leaders are horizontal, vertical or a combination of both.
• The shading beneath the trails allows them to show up well over both the gray surrounding counties and the white Philadelphia.
• I like how the asterisk was used for noting funded trail segments.
• Even though text sometimes overlaps trails, it works.
• I like how the smaller text of the trail names stands out, and yet the trail segments for funding are larger.  It’s effective.
• The semicolons separating trails (Boardwalk to South St., etc) are effective
• White frames the map.
• The 5 mile scale makes sense.

It’s refreshing to see our map transformed by someone else.