The Strangest Driving Laws on Earth

From the Visual Data tumblr site - click for readability:

Apparently this is from an insurance company though I don't see the map on their page. Some of these laws aren't really that strange, other ones I'm a little skeptical of. Does Tennessee really ban shooting whales from a moving vehicle? Another cherished freedom out the window.

Waterplace Park, Providence

I am at the GIS-Pro conference in Providence, Rhode Island and don't have time for a real blog post so here is a "you are here" map. 

The MBTA Map Competition Finals

In the Spring Boston's MBTA launched a competition to redesign the system map. The six finalists have been announced and you can vote for one of them until September 20th. I'm partial to "Map 4" by Kenneth Mirsaki though it has several cartographic problems.

It's not the most clear or easy to read map and those weird grey shadows which I guess are supposed to represent surface routes leave a false impression of elevated tracks. Still, I like the overall design concept and am not one of those people who think transit maps must conform to 45 degree angles.

"Map 1" should probably win. Less interesting but much better clarity. Also pleasing to the 45 degree partisans.

The other ones leave me with a "meh" reaction. I don't really like skinny lines and overly schematic looks.
For reference here is the current "Spider Map" used by the MBTA.

More interesting than any of this are some of the entries that didn't make the final cut. For example this sweet little needlepoint map (left) or the tree map. Neither of these will get you very far if you don't already know your way around.

There's also one I refer to as the "Chicago" map (below left) because that's what the geography looks like to me and a hideous but useful map showing distances from Downtown Crossing.

Cast your vote soon! Thanks to blog reader Christine for pointing out some of these. 

Jerry Gretzinger's World

Jerry Gretzinger began doodling a map of an imaginary town in 1963. When he got to the edge of the page, he added another and the map began to take on its own life. The map now has over 2600 panels and covers 2000 square feet. Here is panel N1/W16.

He takes a playing card from a deck with instructions that tell him what to do next. Panels are often redone and sometimes a card will tell him to place a void (a white space) over part of a panel obliterating what was underneath. Some important areas, like most of the largest city of Ukrania have walls surrounding them to protect the citizens from being wiped out by one of these voids. His blog details one of these voids that happened in January - his words appear below the image.

The Void Incursion which most recently hit the Polk neighborhood of Wybourne in Map Years 752 and 805 yesterday (Map Year 1045) consumed another large expanse of that city carrying off to another dimension an estimated 28,590 people. Taken, too, were over 20 commercial blocks and one rail station.

Since there is no defense wall in this area it is widely assumed that the entire West end of Wybourne will, one day, be lost to the Void.

He also began adding artistic elements like cut out images or words from magazines. For more information on his process you see see his video on vimeo.

You can see the entire map interactively. It takes a while to load and then it may take you all day to stare and marvel at it. Here is a bit I landed on showing an area called Duggan. The town is surrounded by one of those walls to protect it from being victimized by a void. 

Much of the map (about 800 of the central panels) will be on display at the Brattleboro Museum in Vermont starting November 1st.

Older Oldest Globe to Show the Americas

The discovery of the oldest globe to show the New World was announced last week by the Washington Map Society.

The globe was extensively analyzed, x-rayed, carbon dated and ink tested to prove its date of origin and provenace.

Some quotes from the announcement:

The previously-unknown globe, which is about the size of a grapefruit, was made from the lower halves of two ostrich eggs, and dates from the very early 1500s.   Until now, it was thought that the oldest globe to show the New World was the “Lenox Globe” at the New York Public Library, but the author presents evidence that this Renaissance ostrich egg globe was actually used to cast the copper Lenox globe, putting its date c. 1504.

The globe contains ships of different types, monsters, intertwining waves, a shipwrecked sailor, and  71 place names, and one sentence , “HIC SVNT DRACONES” (Here are the Dragons).  Only 7 of the names are in the Western Hemisphere.  No names are shown for North America, which is represented as a group of scattered islands; three names are shown in South America   (Mundus Novus or “New World”, Terra de Brazil, and Terra Sanctae Crucis, or”Land of the Holy Cross”).  For many countries and territories in the world, (e.g. Japan, Brazil, Arabia) this is the oldest known engraved depiction on a globe.  

It's a tired cliche that every author who writes about cartography invokes the "here be dragons" thing. Still I like that it appears on this globe. I also like ostrich eggs as a medium.

Corporate States and Booze States

A couple of months ago graphic designer Steve Lovelace posted this map of the Corporate States of America, subjectively showing the corporation that best represents each state.

There's a list at the bottom of his page so you can figure out the tiny states -  Rhode Island is Hasbro and Delaware is DuPont. The two things that are most interesting to me are that Wyoming is represented by a taco chain and that Starbucks trumps Microsoft.

Thrillist followed up with a booze map.

The map is said to represent the "biggest/most high profile liquor or beer companies" for each state. It's not clear how subjective these choices are but most of them are breweries. As someone that lives in the Northeast and drinks a variety of beer, I've never even heard of many of these nearby breweries such as Willimantic (Connecticut) and Hill Farmstead (Vermont.) Again the tiny states are tough to read but Delaware is Dogfish Head and Rhode Island is probably Narragansett because what else would Rhode Island be?

Who knew that Vodka was so big in the Southeast? Well, I didn't anyway. Also, I like the name of Oklahoma's beer! A little regional feud? 

The Health of Metropolitan Areas

The American Fitness Index (AFI) is a program of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) developed to "provide an evidence- and science-based measurement of the state of health and fitness at the community level throughout the U.S." They have created an interactive map of the 50 largest US metropolitan areas showing their rank from most to least healthy.

The map above shows the overall rankings but you can also see different sets of rankings for personal health (percent with asthma, diabetes, etc.) or community health indicators such as access to recreation areas. The categories used for this study are somewhat subjective so if you're from Oklahoma City (last place) you can find reasons to rip the study apart while Minneapolitans (#1!) praise it.

You can click a city to see its "strengths and challenges."

 Some interesting facts include Cincinnati, ranked 13th overall but #1 in community health and #38 in personal health. The indicators show that while they have lots of parks, recreation opportunities and farmers markets they also have higher rates of obesity and other medical conditions and less than ideal eating, smoking and commuting habits.

The map is fairly crude with some bizarre shadings that vaguely hint at the patterns of the data (lighter colors in the north, darker in the south and lower midwest) and some of the city locations are pretty bad. Also, Kansas City comes up as being in Kansas (which it is) when you click the map but Missouri (which it also is) in the indicators window. This is somewhat sloppy cartography but not enough to earn a "bad maps" label.