Map of the Month: Jun 08 - All Streets

Map by Ben Fry

The image above represents a road map. I have chosen it as my map of the month because, like all good maps, it manages to convey a great deal of information very well, whilst being essentially uncomplicated. For the majority of us, most road maps are not that exciting to look at, they are functional tools used for journeys. This road map has no function for drivers, but great functionality as a map of roads.

I gazed at this map of the USA, to work out what it was ‘saying’ and why. I could see darker areas, lighter areas, linear features and points ‘clumps’. What was it all about? Then, I read the small print to see what the map was supposed to be showing.

As the simple, concise, title suggests, without further clarification or explanation, this is a map of streets (roads). Nothing else. There are no other features shown, no coastlines, towns, relief, infrastructure, boundaries, points of interest, water features, and so on, just streets. Just 26,000,000 individual road segments. The roads avoid mountains and lakes, follow coastlines and become denser in built up areas. For example the ridges of the Appalachian mountain range emerge from the roads that avoid them (or follow their contours).

The map was created by Ben Fry in late 2006. His research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory focused on combining fields such as Computer Science, Statistics, Graphic Design, and Data Visualization as a means for understanding complex data. More information on All Streets.

I wonder if a similar map has been created for the UK and what it looks like?