Outside the lines: 6 maps that re-imagine Boston's T

English academic Max Roberts has devised several new ways of mapping our fair T to get a better sense of how one might go from Point A to Point B—and how long it might take one. Plus, they're just really neat.

Lest you think these maps are simply hyper-fanciful doodles, however, know this: Roberts put considerable thought into each. Take the above, for instance, the T map re-imagined as a series of concentric circles emanating from a center.

But which center? Here's Roberts in his November newsletter (the man has serious fans):

"With four central stations, giving priority to just one seems conceptually wrong, and although there are interesting possibilities for a center point far north or far south, this doesn't seem valid for a network where all lines converge on a clear central business district. New York is an exception to this, but there are good reasons for that. I have a lot of out-takes for the Boston circles map, a sure sign that its creation was a painful and painstaking process."

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This is our favorite: a curvilinear map. No angles or sharp turns.
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A severe multilinear look, with every pivot accentuated.
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This tetralinear take looks the most like the real deal, no?
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Note the Green Line branches in this octolinear design.
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This hexalinear imagining looks familiar, too, except for the Fitchburg and Worcester commuter rail branches.
· Our Fun With Cartography archive [Curbed Boston]