ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 15, 1996 TAG: 9606170069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
VDOT RESEARCH led to the improved map design: It's larger, has more insets, and folds in half. Plus, Gov. George Allen's favorite, it has "realistic" mountains.
It's got mountains!
That's the first thing that jumps out at someone who picks up the new official state highway map. Virginia's Blue Ridge, Alleghany and Cumberland mountains appear to stand out in shades of gray and green.
"We had mountains before, back in the '60s, but not as realistic as these are," said Donna Purcell Mayes, assistant public affairs director for the Virginia Department of Transportation.
One request for showing the mountains on the new map came from Gov. George Allen himself, who is something of a map aficionado. Allen had taken a look at the 1994-95 map, the first of his administration, and had remarked that it would be nice to show the mountains on the map, Purcell Mayes said.
The governor echoed one of the findings of a 1993 VDOT study of improving the state map.
Researchers interviewed the staff at state welcome centers and held six focus-group discussions with a total of 60 people in Roanoke, Richmond, and Northern Virginia. Additionally, they interviewed 1,000 people who had been given state maps at 10 Virginia welcome centers.
As a result of the research, VDOT made the following changes:
The map folds in half, rather than in thirds like the 1994-95 map. All groups interviewed found the "single-fold" map easier to handle.
It's bigger, has more insets, and the insets have been moved to the back of the map. Welcome center visitors, about two-thirds of them from out of state, said they wanted more insets with more detail to help them after they got off interstate highways.
The print on the map and its index is larger. The type size increased when everything on the map was enlarged by 10 percent.
And, most evident, it shows mountains. Through relief techniques, the new map shows any elevations higher than 750 feet above sea level. The change came, in part, because some visitors said they were surprised Virginia had so much rolling terrain.
Other changes included reducing the number and size of photographs on the map and grouping points of interest under the categories of history, culture and recreation to make them easier to find than listing them by region.
Although the new map is wider and the image of Virginia appears larger, the map is actually shorter in its north-south dimension, which makes it easier to use in a car. Besides the small increase in the state's image, moving smaller maps of cities and metro areas to the back helps create the illusion that the map is much larger than before, Purcell Mayes said.
Among the new smaller maps are those showing downtown Roanoke, the Norton-Wise area and Leesburg, which is part of an expanded Northern Virginia inset. Some insets show more of the surrounding area than previously, as well.
A beautiful fall panorama of the mountains photographed in Grayson Highlands State Park emblazons the cover. The map, which will serve the state for the next two years, stresses the state's deep roots in American history, capturing the theme of "Thomas Jefferson's Virginia."
Williams & Heintz Map Corp. of Capitol Heights, Md., has printed an initial run of 3.75 million copies of the new map at a cost to the state of $624,000, Purcell Mayes said. Design changes, however, saved the state $54,000.
The Division of Tourism, VDOT and local and regional visitors centers will distribute the maps free to anyone who asks for them.
Mark Budd, a Williams & Heintz spokesman, said the map, which was designed on a computer, provided no special problems for his company. The 75-year-old map maker, Budd said, has produced county maps, geologic maps and aeronautical maps for Virginia and also does state road maps for Maryland, North Carolina and New Jersey.
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