Friday Fun: All the Colors of the U.S. Transit Rainbow

An intrepid grad student at MIT created a graphic that shows off the color palettes of U.S. and Canadian transit lines.

1 minute read

March 31, 2017, 6:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Subway Entrance

pisaphotography / Shutterstock

Kelsey E. Thomas shares the work of transportation engineering and urban planning graduate student Ari Ofsevit, who frequents the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority transit system while studying at MIT. 

The idea is simple: a graphic that shows the colors used by 13 transit systems in the U.S. and Canada. The threshold for making the graphic: having a system that uses at least three colors, two of them from subway lines. "The graphic was created using PDF maps, a color picker and a line file," explains Ofsevit.

Ofsevit was intrepid enough to complete a project many people had thought of but never actually completed, and for that, as well as the fun result he created, we applaud him.

To shot Ofsevit's work, here his tweet of the most recent version of the graphic, in response to feedback from Twittersphere.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017 in Next City

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

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