A classic New Yorker cover, showing the much-maligned Second Avenue Subway (still five years from completion of even Phase 1 at the time of publication) wending its way past a series of increasingly unlikely stations. Papua New Guinea, Saturn and the Yukon Territories are my favourites.
I’m kind of surprised that this hasn’t been done before – there are plenty of similar track maps out there for other major transit cities like London and Paris – but this is very nicely executed indeed. The map looks great, is easily understood even without consulting the legend, and has copious footnotes for those who want to really dive deep into the inner workings of the subway. Extra kudos for cleverly fitting the label “MANHATTAN” […]
Submitted by David, who says: NYC is relaunching its ferry service today, and they’ve produced a subway-style map to illustrate the service. The typeface and station symbols seem a bit more London than NYC to me, but otherwise seems like a decent map. What do you think? Transit Maps says: Apparently, the first morning of this “new and improved” ferry service didn’t go that well today, as the Mayor’s photo opportunity caused major service delays […]
Submitted by Henry, who says: I stumbled upon this diagram of MTA services available from the MTA. While the general positioning of the lines looks like it’s very clean and has very good bones, the small design decisions (like the shape of transfer points to subway and commuter rail, the rail tickmarks, etc.) make this map feel very cheap and tacky. Transit Maps says: I’m not really feeling this map at all, Henry… not the […]
I’ve long admired this beautiful 1954 flow diagram of subway service into Manhattan during the morning peak hour, so I set myself the personal challenge of recreating it using modern design tools (Adobe Illustrator) while still staying true to the original principles of the map. While it was certainly possible to just trace the source material in Illustrator with the pen tool and end up with a decent facsimile of the original, there’s really nothing to […]
Hey, everyone! Happy New Year! Thanks to just about everyone for sending me pictures of this commemorative Vignelli-style New York subway diagram that was released when the Second Avenue Subway (finally) opened. My spies on the ground in New York are sending me a physical copy as we speak, which is awesome. This revised design was carried out by Massimo Vignelli’s proteges, Beatriz Cifuentes and Yoshiki Waterhouse, who have been entrusted with the stewardship of […]
Submitted by Anthony, who says: You reviewed my map of the Long Island Rail Road a few years ago. Your critiques and your blog have helped me in pushing forward on my current project, a unified Subway and Bus Map, I’m calling it the Bullet Map, named after the nickname for the circle subway route indicators. I launched it a month ago with a Medium post explaining methodology. What do you think of it? Transit Maps says: Anthony’s actually been keeping […]
A wall-sized New York Subway map! Despite initial appearances, this is not based off the Vignelli map; rather, it appears to be a slightly modified or newer version of this map from Wikipedia. Anyone know an exact location for this? Update: New information and a link to a story on Gothamist about this building, which is completely subway themed! The building is at 132A Stanhope Street in Brooklyn if you want to find it yourself. […]
Via: hyperrealcartography: New York City IND Subway planning map from 1927. I don’t have any information about this map other than what’s on it but it appears to be an early version of the Independent Subway System which was built by the City of New York to force the existing private subway companies to sell their lines to the city (”recaptured” as is labeled on the key) . The plan clearly shows the first section […]
You weren’t doing anything productive today, were you? Because this neat online game has the potential to waste hours – or even days – of your life as you attempt to build the perfect subway system. Tweak the existing system to make it just so, or start from scratch and build your own dream network. The game will rate you on estimated ridership and per-ride cost, as compared against the baseline of the current system. […]
