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A Circular New York City Subway Map To Straighten Things Out
Daniel_Stuckey writes "The U.K.'s Max Roberts, a mapmaker and critic, has created a map that sees this problem and then solves it by adopting a similar distortion strategy to the MTA map, but to a far greater degree. The map heads in the direction of a diagram and away from a map representing features. It may be the most lucid reinterpretation of the New York City subway map I've seen yet."
Concise description: a map of the New York subway system drawn in the style of the London Tube system map.
This makes sense. The original subway system started in Manhattan and it is still basically the hub for the entire system... if you want to go from the Bronx to Brooklyn you have to go by way of Manhattan. If you take the F train in Queens to go to Brooklyn you use the 'downtown' train, named so because it goes downtown when it goes through Manhattan. There are generally no direct lines borough to borough though there are exceptions, so Manhattan, while physically small, is disproportionately large in terms of lines and passengers served, as is shown on the circular map.
But that's the point, these stylised maps are to navigate the transport system, not to get around at a surface level. They serve different needs. When you've a map where all the lines are geographically correct it makes it hard to understand how to get from station A to station B, make out the station names and there is a lot of wasted space! Have a look at the London underground geographical map vs the actual tube map for example.
Far better to have a map that fits the purpose. If you want to navigate at the surface level, buy a proper map.
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This is a few years old, but a pretty good example. It's the first thing I looked for too.
I'm not a native NY-er, but I'm pretty familiar with the city and I'm good with maps. If I need to go from Manhattan to Brooklyn, I know in my head where I'm going on the map. This thing distorts a traditional map so that geographically you're all messed up.
Probably the best thing the MTA can do would be to make separate maps for the different lines or even just the different boroughs. Or just have a friggin' touch-screen kiosk that will tell you what train to get on.
Ask and ye shall receive.
The map is not worth much without the streets on it. You usually need a map if you don't know where you are going.
I look for the nearest street to the address I want to go to and then find the nearest subway station. The current map has worked for me for at least 30 years without any problems.
Wow, that looks so much more useful. ;-)
They should switch from the stupid circular map in the article to this one
Seriously, though. The reason they didn't include this map in the article was probably because it is so obviously better than the circular one. They had to juxtapose the circular one with nothing to make it look like it's worth anything.