terrible maps

[agentsteel53]

I'll bet there is a topic for this somewhere, but a friend of mine just sent me the link to this map, and I had to share.



so let's see - we've got:

* cutout US-114 for MA-114
* black square US-107 for MA-107
* Iowa state route 1A (note white margin outside black border; very lovely detail) for MA-1A

and to top it off... check out the interstate 128 shield at upper left!



was this some kind of perverted roadgeek who put this together as an elaborate joke?

[vtk]

This map was prepared by a GIS person.  The precise-looking roadway footprints (probably ROW actually) and sloppy street labels on centerlines is a pretty strong clue to that.  And what's the deal with the weird fill pattern on the Essex / Liberty pedestrian areas? 

[agentsteel53]

And what's the deal with the weird fill pattern on the Essex / Liberty pedestrian areas?

someone floodfilled with the wrong pattern, that's for sure.

also where would they bother getting two different US route shields?  the 107 is a pretty good rendition of '70 spec; not sure where the 114 came from.

[xcellntbuy]

I like the little "Interstate 128" shield, myself.

[jeffandnicole]

If the correct shields were used, I could easily give that map an A+. 

Roadmaps within advertisements in newspapers are generally the absolute worst, imo.

[PHLBOS]

I was going to chide it for not showing the new Bridge St. Bypass (MA 107 relocated) and the current configuration of the MA 107/114 interchange (the court building was expanded taking out the southwest cloverleaf ramps) but the August 2004 date of the map makes those points moot. 

The roads and ramps shown are indeed correct... for 2004.

[Brandon]

If the correct shields were used, I could easily give that map an A+. 

Roadmaps within advertisements in newspapers are generally the absolute worst, imo.

Check out the ones in hotel/motel guides.  They (and the advertisement ones) make the above look like a work of art.

[wphiii]

This map was prepared by a GIS person.

As someone who did GIS stuff in undergrad, I am constantly bemused as to how being a GIS person seems to always preclude any and all aesthetic sense. Like, preparing something that doesn't look like it was designed by a 3rd grader just isn't that difficult, even using clunky GIS programs.

[vtk]

This map was prepared by a GIS person.

As someone who did GIS stuff in undergrad, I am constantly bemused as to how being a GIS person seems to always preclude any and all aesthetic sense. Like, preparing something that doesn't look like it was designed by a 3rd grader just isn't that difficult, even using clunky GIS programs.

What I was getting at was the tendency of people who know how to use professional GIS products to care more about having precisely-drawn data than any other aspects of the map.  Similarly, if the roadgeeks here were making the map, the shields would all be perfectly to spec (if not MassDOT's spec), and all the routes would be shown on the correct streets, but the alignment of the streets themselves would be less precise, or the whole thing would be an aerial photo with labels overlaid.  People with different backgrounds tend to focus on different aspects of mapmaking.  Generally, the only people who make beautiful maps are the ones who focus primarily on making beautiful maps.

[wphiii]

Generally, the only people who make beautiful maps are the ones who focus primarily on making beautiful maps.

My point was just how odd I've always found that, because I have sufficient experience to know that it takes very little effort to not just throw aesthetics completely out the window.

[PHLBOS]

all the routes would be shown on the correct streets

As one who grew up a few miles from that area, the route markers on that Salem map are indeed shown/placed on the correct streets (for the era).  It's just the 3-digit shields that are incorrect.  The 1A shield is somewhat forgivable because it's more of a generic MUTCD state shield.

[vtk]

all the routes would be shown on the correct streets

As one who grew up a few miles from that area, the route markers on that Salem map are indeed shown/placed on the correct streets (for the era).  It's just the 3-digit shields that are incorrect.  The 1A shield is somewhat forgivable because it's more of a generic MUTCD state shield.

I didn't bother to fact-check the various routes shown on the map.  But in general, a roadgeek is more likely to make a map with correct route information than a non-roadgeek at a GIS workstation.  In GIS, you don't draw the map, you pull in one or more datasets and tell the software how to draw it.  Many of these datasets (such as TIGER) might be outdated or simply wrong about the path a given marked route follows from time to time.  And only a roadgeek is going to notice and try to correct such an error.  Most GIS specialists aren't roadgeeks, which is why datasets contain errors like that to begin with.

But I suppose I'm rambling now, as I've just devoted a whole paragraph to a type of error that wasn't present in the "terrible" map in the original post.

[Brandon]

all the routes would be shown on the correct streets

As one who grew up a few miles from that area, the route markers on that Salem map are indeed shown/placed on the correct streets (for the era).  It's just the 3-digit shields that are incorrect.  The 1A shield is somewhat forgivable because it's more of a generic MUTCD state shield.

What gets me on the map is that there are not two, not three, but four different shields for the routes in the area, all of which are Massachusetts state routes.  I can understand the MA-128 error as IIRC, it is a freeway near there, but the others are nuts.

[txstateends]

I thought as I was growing up that the 'terrible maps' prize would go to those wildly imaginative folks who come up with maps for new housing developments; the maps were WAY out of scale and more often than not, US 75 would be labeled (as text or a shield image, either one) as 'I-75'.

But since then, the maps I see that guests get from the car rental places at the airport definitely go to the head of the fingernails-on-blackboard line.  >ugh<, cringing just thinking about it LOL....

It can't cost that much (or be that much more trouble to go to) to get accurate, correctly-scaled maps printed up.

[vtk]

It can't cost that much (or be that much more trouble to go to) to get accurate, correctly-scaled maps printed up.

That's probably the assumption that leads to these terrible maps being published.

"Hello Mr. Professional Cartographer and/or Graphic Designer. I'd like a map for my marketing materials.  How much?  Nevermind, I'll draw it myself in Word."

See also: Clients From Hell

[deathtopumpkins]

I think I might know where the circle 1A shield came from: http://goo.gl/maps/QZTX6 

As for the US shields, everyone just refers to all routes regardless of class here as "Route XX", so maybe they saw "US Route" and thought that was correct. It's not like anyone actually pays attention to the signs or anything.

[Alps]

all the routes would be shown on the correct streets

As one who grew up a few miles from that area, the route markers on that Salem map are indeed shown/placed on the correct streets (for the era).  It's just the 3-digit shields that are incorrect.  The 1A shield is somewhat forgivable because it's more of a generic MUTCD state shield.

No, that's Alabama, not a circle.

[NE2]

holy crap Interstates in 1930

http://archive.org/details/reportofstateroa1927mary

[usends]

* cutout US-114 for MA-114
* black square US-107 for MA-107
* Iowa state route 1A (note white margin outside black border; very lovely detail) for MA-1A

I can't even count how many maps I've seen from state, county, and municipal GIS departments that have shields like that.  I think that "state highway" circle must be a default style in ArcGIS.  But the US shields might not be the fault of the software programmers.  Rather, it may be that the city erroneously classified that road as "US 114", and the software simply used a corresponding shield.

[PHLBOS]

Rather, it may be that the city erroneously classified that road as "US 114", and the software simply used a corresponding shield.

As one who grew up in the neighboring town of Marblehead; I can say with reasonable certainty that nobody in the City of Salem would classify Route 114 as a US road/highway.  I could see somebody making that mistake w/1A because that route is an offshoot/alternate of US 1.

Given that only the 3-digit routes in Salem (107 & 114) have the erroneous US shields tells me that the user of the software either did not have a 3-digit state shield set-up nor couldn't find/set-up one.

As towards why the 107 & 114 show different styles of US shields may be due to either the user doing one of the routes first then plotting the other (w/a different type of shield) at different times.  Or the user applied a different shield for a route containing two 1's in it (114) vs. a route containing only a single 1 (107).  Heck, I've seen similar practices in the field all the time.

[formulanone]

Car dealer ads are where shields (everything's a warped US Route shield) and maps (no attempt at scale) and directions (we're 15 minutes from everywhere...except our competitor on the other side of town) go to die. Which is my useless pet theory of why car manufacturers really offer navigation systems...

The only map gaffe that really grates my carrot is when route shields and markers are placed right in the middle of the intersection, giving little clue as to where to go next.

[briantroutman]

Roadmaps within advertisements in newspapers are generally the absolute worst, imo.

Check out the ones in hotel/motel guides.

With few exceptions, almost any thumbnail sized map in an advertisement, brochure, directory, etc. competes for "worst".

Stuff like this...


I remember such cringe-inducing maps in hotel directories in the early '90s–hating their inaccuracies and yet finding some kind of odd charm in them.

[Central Avenue]

Here's an especially awful one I spotted on a promotional mailing a few months back. It's got that lazy thing going on where every road is depicted as a straight line or a perfect arc...and to add insult to injury, it uses US-style shields for every state route!

[vtk]

Actually, I don't have a problem with that simplified geometry; it makes it less confusing for people who just want to figure out their sequence of left and right turns.  The only reason I-270 is curved is because everyone knows it's a circle, and the curvature gives an intuitive hint as to which side of Columbus we're looking at.

[usends]

...and to add insult to injury, it uses US-style shields for every state route!

Yeah, not only are the shields bad, but they also left off the roadnames for each of those highways.  I'm assuming locals would typically refer to those roads not by their highway number, but rather by their names, "Broad", "Main", etc. correct?