Continuing with my subway system maps, today I add the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit.

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I am also creating a new section for these maps. I plan on also creating system maps with extensions, like the Future MBTA, but for all these other systems.

Here is the brand spanking new map of all the transit systems in the New York City area. That includes the MTA, PATH, AirTrain, Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, and the Newark City Subway.

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I finally figured out how to embed a Google Map in a post so now I will be updating the site with all sorts of cool maps.

The first is the Unbuilt Highways of New York City which is one I posted a link to last month and one I have been getting a lot of traffic from ever since Google added it to their “Custom Maps” content.

The second is the Unbuilt Highways of Boston which is newly expanded.

The third is the Unbuilt Highways of Albany, NY which is tiny but dear to my heart as I grew up in the area.

The last is the Unbuilt Highways of Providence, RI.

All of these maps are works in progress as Google is always adding new stuff and I just can’t leave my work “finished”.

Moving along (slowly) with my overhaul of the Future MBTA section, tonight I updated the Blue Line with two new maps and a whole new write up.

I-30, I-35E, I-40 - Dallas, TX. I have always been fascinated by so called traffic machines. Traffic engineers apparently though it was a good idea to loop downtowns with giant highways, funneling traffic in and out of downtown every morning and night. These are the moats of the 20th century, keeping downtowns safe from undesirables that live just past the edge but allowing the people wealthy enough to afford a house in the suburbs and a car to drive into town. But like any wall that protects, it also strangles what it surrounds. When the cars leave there is no life here. Lights turn on but no one is home. Subways help but only go so far when an area is cut off from foot traffic. What amazes me is the willingness to destroy a city just for convenience.

US Route 101, I-5, I-10 - Los Angeles, CA. There is nothing that says L.A. like a freeway. As someone who has grown up on the East Coast the highway mentality is something quite strange to me. 12 lanes of concrete and assault and it isn’t enough? But I do have to give it to L.A., they do highways right. They looked at New York and said let’s do the complete opposite of that. Jane Jacobs didn’t think much of L.A. but that was because she was a creature of New York. L.A. is decentralized while New York is highly centralized, but at the same time L.A. is one of the densest cities in America. Thankfully they realize that ever expanding highways will only lead to more congestion, but we should sit back and marvel at the web they have constructed.

MI Route 5, I-275, I-96, I-696 - Detroit, MI. When I see this all I can think of is some traffic engineer saying, “We got all this space, lets stretch our legs.” This resembles a creature pulled from the deep or some strange amoebic creature. The other two interchanges made me think about what we have done to cities, this one just makes me smile.