Let’s rate some UK bus network maps out of 10, taking into account legibility, colour scheme and general vibe, thread : 1) Cardiff 6/10: it’s ok but missing something. Font sizes are tiny, attention to geographic accuracy at expense of figuring out which lines go where

2) Aberdeen, 7/10. This one is a step up. Like the muted urban area shading and use of coloured dots to show line termini. However, font sizes still spectacle worthy and this map is still going to be very difficult to glance at and know which bus to take

3) Norwich. 3/10 - this is a thoroughly bad map. Street level detail is massively confusing to the eye and the weirdly bright green colour of the parks is not visually appealing against light grey background. Almost impossible to tell which lines are which

4) Birmingham. I found this and hope it is not the main map used at bus stops. 1/10 - quite something, looks like a blue spiders web.

5) Oxford - 8/10. The font sizes are finally clear and large on a minamalist background, good mixture of geographic and schematic, missed a trick in labelling the thick multi-line sections with numbers though

6) Liverpool. 5/10. This is an example where geographic accuracy causes massive confusion - look at the loop in the SE corner for example

7) Derry. 4/10 - it’s quite clear but there’s something strangely rushed looking about this - why do lines have a mixture of angular kinks and curves

8) Glasgow. 7/10. It’s an achievement to make a vast metro bus map of such detail relatively aesthetic even though it could take hours to find your bus route. The material was difficult to work with here.

9) Hull. 2/10, why anyone would choose to have mostly all one colour is kind of beyond me

10) Plymouth. 9/10 - this one is almost artistically good - look how it blends from geographic to schematic towards the centre as the network becomes more complex

11) Belfast. 4/10 - the intentions here were good, in showing main lines and local lines, but this is not elegance

12) Swansea. 2/10. So far zoomed out and adverts everywhere - realistically not possible to find out what the bus routes are after a considerably long time

13) Lastly, Brighton and Hove. 8/10 - given the challenges of such a linear system, I think this achieves quite a lot of elegance and clarity, the street map town centre inset rather than just a box is a very good compromise