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New 2019 OK Official Map Is Out

Started by rte66man, March 11, 2019, 08:11:50 AM

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rte66man

https://www.ok.gov/triton/modules/newsroom/newsroom_article.php?id=277&article_id=48126

Quote
March 8, 2019
PR# 19-004

Cross boundaries to explore Oklahoma's hidden treasures and ultimate destinations in the new, official 2019 state map now available to travelers. The bi-fold map highlights hidden treasures from eclectic architecture and streetscapes to local businesses, farms and agritourism. Destinations range from scenic to educational to recreational; Oklahoma is limitless in its offerings. This year's map theme accompanies the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department's Travel Guide "Land of No Boundaries."

Diverse attractions such as Lake Altus-Lugert, Pawhuska's Pioneer Woman Mercantile or the new street cars in downtown Oklahoma City are just a few examples of a variety of experiences available in this boundary-less state. A new, popular attraction is Tulsa's Gathering Place Riverfront Park with its pelican slides from Adventure Playground featured on the map cover.

A highlight of the map is a message from newly elected Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, emphasizing Oklahoma as a leading industry competitor and a great place to expand a business, while still being a place for adventure travelers and families to explore.

"We're extremely proud of this new state map efficiently created with our partners. The Land of No Boundaries is the perfect theme to describe the diversity of amazing places and spaces for visitors to enjoy across the state,"  said Terri Angier, ODOT spokeswoman.

"Even more importantly, the official state map is not just for out-of-state visitors, but also a guide to help Oklahomans explore their beautiful state. Gracing the cover of this map is the world-renowned Gathering Place, already cited by USA Today as the #1 Best New Attraction in the country,"  Angier said.

Traveler information such as a state parks facilities guide, helpful phone numbers and website addresses such as TravelOK.com are included to assist drivers while traveling in our state. Also included are detailed maps of Oklahoma City, Tulsa, the state Capitol area, Lawton/Ft. Sill, Enid, Stillwater and Muskogee, a mileage chart and all turnpike routes.

Design and development of the state map is a continual process at ODOT with its partners, the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department and Oklahoma Turnpike Authority. Planning for this map began in mid-2018. This year, a total of 800,000 copies of the 2019-2020 state map are being printed in two cycles at an estimated total cost of $104,000.

Maps are free of charge at any of the Tourism Welcome Centers statewide, all ODOT division offices and the Tourism and Recreation Department warehouse and can be requested by visiting TravelOK.com/Brochures. The map is also available for viewing on the ODOT website www.odot.org under Traffic & Travel > Traveler's Information.
[\quote]
When you come to a fork in the road... TAKE IT.

                                                               -Yogi Berra


okc1

I-444 posted in Tulsa? That will confuse visitors
Steve Reynolds
Midwest City OK
Native of Southern Erie Co, NY

Bobby5280

Much of the labeling on the map is done in default, crappy Arial. Ugh. There are so many more attractive and more functional type family choices out there than freaking Arial. I don't think it's a question of licensing either, not when they used the Sucrose type family (a recent commercial release) for some of the headlines and larger type elements.

rte66man

I am so disappointed in this map.  ODOT had a great opportunity to fix problems but IMO they only made it worse.  As already mentioned, very poor font choices, point size too small, and so on.
When you come to a fork in the road... TAKE IT.

                                                               -Yogi Berra

Bobby5280

One obvious mistake: they tried cramming everything onto one state-wide image of the map. A full state-wide map image is good for a broad overview. Include only the most important details so all the labels can be set larger and more legible. Maybe that's what is best for a print-based map that one keeps folded up in the glove box.

But today the year is 2019, not 1982. We have smart phones, tablets and a variety of computer types that can all read PDFs or other kinds of electronic documents. Maybe they should develop a state map that is a more in-depth PDF. Provide one page that gives a broad, state-wide overview of the map. Then divide the state image into a grid with each square of that grid showing a closer, more detailed view. Plenty of state maps have been treated in that fashion before. It's easy enough to do in PDF. Another approach is developing an interactive map that reveals more and more detail (such as place of interest) the farther you zoom in to the map. That approach is harder, but might be far more effective.

Another big question: is a map like this really a duplication of efforts? What is a map like this going to show that can't already be seen in Google Maps/Earth, Bing Maps, Apple Maps, Mapquest, etc? What if more effort was put into making sure those map services were accurately showing all the points of interest in Oklahoma?

Scott5114

My biggest gripe is that the PDF appears to be a large bitmap image that gets pixelated when you zoom in. Something like this really should be saved as vectors so that it's zoomable.

The choice of blue for state highways is a little wacky, but that may just be because of 14 years of blue = freeway on Wikipedia.

Is that US-63 making an appearance just south of McAlester?

Quote from: Bobby5280 on March 11, 2019, 11:41:56 AM
Much of the labeling on the map is done in default, crappy Arial. Ugh. There are so many more attractive and more functional type family choices out there than freaking Arial. I don't think it's a question of licensing either, not when they used the Sucrose type family (a recent commercial release) for some of the headlines and larger type elements.

I agree, but they've been using Arial since at least the late 1990s (when they changed away from whatever weird sort of phototypeset font they were using in the 80s), so it's not like this is anything new. In the 50s they used Futura; maybe they should bring that back.

I think Kansas uses Arial on theirs too.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

Bobby5280

Quote from: Scott5114My biggest gripe is that the PDF appears to be a large bitmap image that gets pixelated when you zoom in. Something like this really should be saved as vectors so that it's zoomable.

There's a couple possible reasons for that.

It could be a file size and performance issue. Normally vector art will yield a smaller file than something with a high resolution raster-based image. But a state map like this literally has thousands of objects. The file size might balloon to something not friendly to download on slow connections. A really complicated vector layout will not render on screen quickly. Older machines will struggle with zooming, especially GPU-enabled animated zooming.

The second reason is they might not want everyone to have access to vector-based art of the actual map. Maybe it's intellectual property they want to protect. PDFs can be password protected to block unauthorized editing, but that type of PDF encryption can be broken. The only password method that is pretty bullet proof at protecting PDFs is password protecting it at the file open operation. But then that would make public viewing of the map useless. Rasterizing the vector content into pixel-based form is another alternative. I've went with that route from time to time dealing with sign customers that didn't seem trustworthy. I don't want a rival sign shop stealing my art. Converting the elements to raster-based objects solves that problem very well.

Quote from: Scott5114I agree, but they've been using Arial since at least the late 1990s (when they changed away from whatever weird sort of phototypeset font they were using in the 80s), so it's not like this is anything new. In the 50s they used Futura; maybe they should bring that back.

I suspect it could be a Microsoft Office or Windows thing. Arial is a go-to default with both. Arial is included in the system typefaces of Mac OSX, but there are other better looking choices like Helvetica Neue, Gill Sans or Avenir Next. It could also be sheer laziness. Arial begins with "A" putting it near the top of any font menu.

Scott5114

Quote from: Bobby5280 on March 12, 2019, 05:27:40 PM
Quote from: Scott5114My biggest gripe is that the PDF appears to be a large bitmap image that gets pixelated when you zoom in. Something like this really should be saved as vectors so that it's zoomable.

There's a couple possible reasons for that.

It could be a file size and performance issue. Normally vector art will yield a smaller file than something with a high resolution raster-based image. But a state map like this literally has thousands of objects. The file size might balloon to something not friendly to download on slow connections. A really complicated vector layout will not render on screen quickly. Older machines will struggle with zooming, especially GPU-enabled animated zooming.

The second reason is they might not want everyone to have access to vector-based art of the actual map. Maybe it's intellectual property they want to protect. [...]

I think if anything, it's either to keep file size down, or plain technical ineptness. Shapefile data, presumably the source ODOT uses for all its maps, is freely available for download from their site. ODOT does not explicitly waive copyright on their products like KDOT does, but they also don't seem to go out of their way to make their data difficult to obtain.

I am leaning toward "technically inept" because 1) it fits the pattern of ODOT's other work and 2) other agencies, like KDOT, seem to have little problem putting out vector PDFs of their entire state maps.

Vector output is very handy for a state map because, unlike an all-text PDF, users may wish to zoom in on small segments of the map and examine them in much greater detail than is available at a full-page view. That means, for pure usability purposes, you'd need a very high DPI, possibly even the 300 dpi you'd send to the printers, which is going to kill any sort of performance gain of rasterizing the output anyway.

Quote from: Bobby5280 on March 12, 2019, 05:27:40 PM
Quote from: Scott5114I agree, but they've been using Arial since at least the late 1990s (when they changed away from whatever weird sort of phototypeset font they were using in the 80s), so it's not like this is anything new. In the 50s they used Futura; maybe they should bring that back.

I suspect it could be a Microsoft Office or Windows thing. Arial is a go-to default with both. Arial is included in the system typefaces of Mac OSX, but there are other better looking choices like Helvetica Neue, Gill Sans or Avenir Next. It could also be sheer laziness. Arial begins with "A" putting it near the top of any font menu.

I think it is more to do with the fact that ODOT's map division is run by folks with GIS degrees and not graphic design degrees. Arial is familiar, and, while not pretty, functional. So it gets used in place of anything else.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

Brandon

Quote from: rte66man on March 11, 2019, 08:03:15 PM
I am so disappointed in this map.  ODOT had a great opportunity to fix problems but IMO they only made it worse.  As already mentioned, very poor font choices, point size too small, and so on.

Well, this is the state that brought you CraIG COuntY.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg

bugo

Has anybody noted any changes on the new map?

rte66man

Quote from: bugo on March 15, 2019, 06:40:27 AM
Has anybody noted any changes on the new map?

"Chilsohm Trail" is missing........
When you come to a fork in the road... TAKE IT.

                                                               -Yogi Berra

Brian556

Quote from: Bobby5280 on March 11, 2019, 10:14:00 PM
One obvious mistake: they tried cramming everything onto one state-wide image of the map. A full state-wide map image is good for a broad overview. Include only the most important details so all the labels can be set larger and more legible. Maybe that's what is best for a print-based map that one keeps folded up in the glove box.

But today the year is 2019, not 1982. We have smart phones, tablets and a variety of computer types that can all read PDFs or other kinds of electronic documents. Maybe they should develop a state map that is a more in-depth PDF. Provide one page that gives a broad, state-wide overview of the map. Then divide the state image into a grid with each square of that grid showing a closer, more detailed view. Plenty of state maps have been treated in that fashion before. It's easy enough to do in PDF. Another approach is developing an interactive map that reveals more and more detail (such as place of interest) the farther you zoom in to the map. That approach is harder, but might be far more effective.

Another big question: is a map like this really a duplication of efforts? What is a map like this going to show that can't already be seen in Google Maps/Earth, Bing Maps, Apple Maps, Mapquest, etc? What if more effort was put into making sure those map services were accurately showing all the points of interest in Oklahoma?

"What is a map like this going to show that can't already be seen in Google Maps/Earth, Bing Maps, Apple Maps, Mapquest, etc?"
Counties, accurate numbered highway tagging, allows you to see the state highway system without the clutter of other roads

US71

Quote from: Brandon on March 13, 2019, 03:03:17 PM
Quote from: rte66man on March 11, 2019, 08:03:15 PM
I am so disappointed in this map.  ODOT had a great opportunity to fix problems but IMO they only made it worse.  As already mentioned, very poor font choices, point size too small, and so on.

Well, this is the state that brought you CraIG COuntY.

and circle in a meat cleaver 9
Like Alice I Try To Believe Three Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Bobby5280

Quote from: Brian556"What is a map like this going to show that can't already be seen in Google Maps/Earth, Bing Maps, Apple Maps, Mapquest, etc?"
Counties, accurate numbered highway tagging, allows you to see the state highway system without the clutter of other roads

I see county names in those online map services. State highways look to me like they're tagged correctly. Apple Maps even uses reasonably decent representations of all the state highway symbols. The online map systems are not all equal at keeping maps up to date with street and highway projects. But printed maps aren't perfect in that regard either.

rte66man

I picked up a new 2019-20 OK official map yesterday.  ODOT made sweeping changes to the existing map format and layout, most for the worse. This is by far the worst OK official ever issued.

   1. Unless your city is a county seat, you won't be able to find it because the font size used is too small to read without a magnifying glass.
   2. The changes in the shield format and font make it much harder to read. If a highway is co-signed, the second highway is shown in a font so small it can't easily be read.
   3. Complete redesign of how highways are shown, again for the worse.  I can no longer tell whether a non-interstate highway is a freeway or just a 4 lane with  no grade separations.
   4. FAR too many typos.  US64 now appears between Prague and Okemah.  US271 now appears SW of Chickasha.

At this point I gave up.  I'm writing an email to the new ODOT director with a cc to the Governor. This map is an embarrassment. Maps are supposed to be easy to read as the few of us who still use paper maps need to be able to read them at a glance.
When you come to a fork in the road... TAKE IT.

                                                               -Yogi Berra

The Ghostbuster

Does the map show the under-construction Eastern Oklahoma County Turnpike?



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