Marin's Roads as Transit

Major Roads as Metro If there is one thing that gets a transit advocate's heart racing, it's a transit fantasy map.  It speaks to our not-so-hidden desire that method by which we get around - trains, buses, cars, bikes and feet - should each occupy a niche in the urban landscape, hopefully without too much spillover into another mode's bailiwick.  A fantasy map means that a given area is no longer strictly the domain of the car but is accessible to all travelers.

Sometimes, however, a fantasy map is really not a fantasy at all, but a reimagining of what is already there.  Cameron Booth, for example, created a map of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System as though it were a subway system.  Complutense has a fair number of fantastic maps of Bay Area transit.  (Marin sure looks lonely with its one little track.)  With that, I submit my own - East Marin's roads as metro.

Why?  When my eyes drifted from DC's transit network and back to my home, I realized that Marin is laid out in lines thanks to its geography.  Not only does this lend itself to diagramming, but it lends itself to frequent buses: the population is forced to travel along these routes, and they already live close enough to them that bus improvements help the whole corridor, not just a few near the stops.

The map will be updated as time goes on.  It needs some work, but it has helped me visualize Marin's potential.