A Bad City Map

[Spartan]

I came accross this on the map of the downtown area on the city's website. Notice any problems?

I count at at least a dozen.

8 major ones

4 minor/moderate ones

can you spot them all? (ill post my list later on)

edit: I found a two more. So thats 14 total. I find this map more disgusting the more I look at it. Apparantly the person who made it does not live in Spartanburg.

[hub-city]

i know that they are trying to be general, but they could at leatst put buildings etc.. in the right block.

Barnet Park is huge!!!

The Hangar is in the wrong block

The SPARTA terminal is in the wrong block

heck, Morgan Square is in the wrong block

the Auditorium and county offices are off

i don't think the Federal building is on the corner

help me out Spartan

[krazeeboi]

Because I don't live in Spartanburg, I wouldn't know, but it really doesn't look like this map is scaled correctly.

[Spartan]

The Street grid is relatively true. Its missing quite a few roads, though they are minor ones.

My list:

• Barnet Park is too large

• Wrong place
  • Herald-Journal

  • Morgan Square (does not cover two blocks!)

  • The Hangar

  • SPARTA

  • SWS

  • Federal Building

  [*]Missing Roads

  • Ezell St

  • Chestnut St

  • King St

  • Section of Advent that connects to Union St.

  • Many other smaller streets

  [*]The Broad St connector from Morgan Square is not there any more (yet the yet-to-be-bulit Cultural Center is?)

  [*]The library is not triangular on that block

  [*]The Parking on Daniel Morgan is mis-shapen

  [*]There is no icon for the Magnolia St Station

Those are my major complains. These are my lesser ones:

• No color legend to explain what the colors mean (brown?)

• Text is too large for what is there.

• Possible issue with scale of colors (i dont know what they are supposed to represent so I can't be certain)

Some of these things I can let slide like the lesser roads not being there, but having crucial buildings and landmarks in the wrong place is unacceptable.

And Krazeeboi, that is exactly why this map should be changed or taken down. If you were to assume it is accurate you would get lost in a second.

[krazeeboi]

Although I know what you mean as far as a color legend goes, what I can make out is that lavender is for churches, red is for government buildings, purple is for hotels (only one on this map), and I would say that brown is for landmark headquarters buildings, but the inclusion of the public library kinda shoots that one down. Public buildings, I guess? I don't know why the Chamber of Commerce building is in blue and the water works building (and the other building, can't make out what it is) is in light blue.

[Spartan]

Although I know what you mean as far as a color legend goes, what I can make out is that lavender is for churches, red is for government buildings, purple is for hotels (only one on this map), and I would say that brown is for landmark headquarters buildings, but the inclusion of the public library kinda shoots that one down. Public buildings, I guess? I don't know why the Chamber of Commerce building is in blue and the water works building (and the other building, can't make out what it is) is in light blue.

That is exactly my point. You aren't sure. Most of what you said is exactly what I thought too. Most of the brown color is the hitoric structures. Mostly. But then you have the brand new library, ESA, QS/1, and Denny's Tower that completely debunk that theory. I'm at a loss.

That other buliding is the SPARTA (bus) transit center.

[teshadoh]

THe biggest problem with 'affordable' map production - is that the biggest factor for most is visibility. So, graphic design firms are sadly the most prefered cartographic development firms for most small cities & businesses.

[Spartan]

I agree to an extent. However, with the fantastic orthoimagery that the city has (and I know for a fact that they do) and their access to GIS, there is no excuse for this. I know the GIS is not a good cartographic tool, but its not that bad. Even still, there is no excuse for having a map that has things that are blatantly in the wrong location. I know that they could create something more accurate that this map.

I am planning to write the city about this map at some point.

[teshadoh]

^ But there are at least 10 graphic designers for every GIS user & probably an extra 10 more graphic designer hacks for every 10 graphic designers. It's simply cheaper for someone to doodle something on Photoshop or even Corel Draw.

[Spartan]

Thats very true, but still no excuse for not knowing where things are in your own city.

[goodbye]

This map REALLY sucks! How could they actually allow that to be published?!

[crossroad]

Well they are STILL using it after such long time:

http://www.cityofspartanburg.org/images/DowntownMap.gif

[Spartan]

Yeah and what's worse is that its more easily found now.