transitmaps:

Official Map: Sao Paulo Metropolitan Transport Network

Unusually, this map from the Brazilian metropolis of Sao Paulo shows services offered by completely different transportation companies on the same map. To my mind, this type of integrated map needs to be used more often - travelers don’t necessarily care who offers the service, they just want to know if they can get from point A to point B.

Have we been there? No.

What we like: Comprehensive and all-encompassing. Great legend, even if it takes up more than half the sheet of paper it is printed on. I love the line names for the CPTM services - precious stones. It makes for some lovely and unusual colours on the map itself as well. Bilingual legend.

What we don’t like: Seems very cramped in places. The spacing on the Diamond line to the west of the city is far tighter than on the lines to the east. The grey drop shadow on the interchange stations (seemingly indicating light coming from the top left of the map) is ugly and unnecessary.

The whole thing is very busy, with dots everywhere - blue dots, green dots, white dots with green outlines, dots with an “E” in them - all of which need you to refer to the legend to determine their meaning. The need to show the logos of all the service providers on the map itself just adds to the visual noise.

Some routes seem unnecessarily complex for a diagrammatic map - the Yellow Line weaves all over the place, and why does the Lilac line need to jog northwards after it connects with the Emerald line at Santo Amaro?

Our rating: A comprehensive look at transit in a huge city, but a bit of a mess, really. Two-and-a-half-stars.

(Source: Official Sao Paulo Metro website)