Rethinking the New York City Subway Map
How to link the history and future of New York Public Transit
Not Redesigning, Rethinking the New York City Subway Map
Trace our history. Flip our perspective.
The first historic subway linked City Hall, Grand Central, Time Square, and 145th St & Broadway in October 27th, 1904 by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), later with a joint competition by Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit (BMT) and Independent Rapid Transit Railroad (IND) for few decades. Though there were earlier attempts with underground and elevated railways since back in the mid-19th century, the Panic of 1873, stock market crash led the projects to be withdrawn, and IRT became the figurehead of public subway transit that included stations for users. New York subway is now the only rapid transit system that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; entitled as ‘The City That Never Sleeps’.
With infinite expansion and constructions, there have been numerous iterations of New York City subway maps since the early 20th Century that graphically demonstrated the insomniac underground network. Early on when fewer tracks existed and concentrated in Manhattan, there was no need of stretching the artboard vertically but was able to illustrate horizontally like the first 1904 New York subway map. The map took advantage of a long-stretched Manhattan island, following its geographical aspect, with an incredible section cut of the route. The map is illustrated as an easily readable and understandable format for viewers, with its simple representation and panoramic elegance.
As migration to other boroughs started to boom and more interborough public transit required higher demand, subway maps also had to evolve in order to accommodate those newly linked stations. BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation) also became the other privately operated company mostly serving outer-Manhattan areas and IND (Independent Subway System) that later merged with the two independent networks in 1940. These expansions were designed to push and pull people who mostly had jobs in Manhattan. Back then it was such a great innovation of crossing the East River at a glimpse allowing disperse of urban development and flawless migration to the empire state which has become what we see New York today.
Nonetheless, there have been discrepancies among IRT, BMT, and IND subway maps. In contrast to the IRT, BMT maps were oriented vertically which kept the north-south axis vertical since it should have been challenging to include all the Brooklyn-Queens stations from Flushing all the way to Coney Island in a horizontal map. IND maps had both horizontal and vertical maps which were inconsistent on their orientation, but later on, all three merged together in 1940 for compatibility and the base map and orientation was kept for decades which are used today.
So why has the subway map been not so much evolved for more than seven decades? The old map has been successful in terms of integrating all independent subway systems as one unified network until the map started to include every detail. As new information amalgamated such as Staten Island Railway, the bus connection to airports, LIRR and so on, the map started to lose hierarchy even though it is meant to be a ‘subway’ map. Already decades-old maps were packed with bold texts, and despite the fact that text became smaller after converting digitally you are left with a vast amount of empty spaces with webby roads which are merely useless to subway passengers. What do we, especially tourists, say now about the New York City subway map? Convoluted and hard to understand.
User interaction with subway maps
Before we jump in too deeply into the design and detail of the New York City subway map, it should be brought up to the horizon that there are great challenges when these maps are placed behind people sitting. The map exists in every single subway car, but mostly only one per 60-feet long car. We all now look into our phones and directly jump into transit apps which now you mostly rely on, only when network service is available. Looking at your Google Maps or MYmta app on your phone with limited wi-fi could facilitate routes to a certain amount of people, but those can’t beat printed maps on the subway that could easily and immediately deliver subway information. And it is unfortunate that these maps are extremely underutilized due to its limit in all aspects.
Map placement and ergonomics are the key driving force of becoming a successful messenger that conveniently and clearly informs public transit users’ departure, transfer, and arrival stations. Probably the map is placed right next to the door behind a seat because it’s the only place that would fit the gigantic map. Placing on the doors, windows, or ceiling doesn’t seem to be ideal from a passenger perspective. Nevertheless, horizontal displays above users seem to be the only spot where is possible to migrate these maps but as you might already know, they are either full of private advertisements or full of emptiness.
Subway interior with dedicated private ad spaces
Many advertising firms like Outfront Media is thriving the transportation advertisement market with numerous and innovative strategies on amplifying billboards for diverse companies and organizations. Advertisement is a key impetus of operating public transportation and should be deliberately dispersed throughout the whole transit network. However, a component ratio of private ads and subway map in a subway interior can stretch up to 30 to 1. Public transit authorities should be cautious of transforming public infrastructure into privatized billboards and should not forget the purpose of public transit and who it should belong to.
Seoul Metropolitan Subway, one of the foremost public transits with the latest technology, is full of digital screens, refreshing indoor environment, and platform screen doors on nearly all stations. Horizontal subway maps and digital screens showing current/nearby stops in between horizontal ads are located above doors where those are specially anchored. Even though Seoul is known for hard pusher on technology, a core principle of maintaining simplified and easily accessible Seoul subway maps provide commuters and tourists convenient wayfinding. So back to New York, who should public transit primarily serve for? Private companies? Or Commuters?
Retrofitting new subway map to an existing subway system
Cities like London, Tokyo, Washington, and Moscow geographically don’t have a north-south elongated land like Manhattan in which those cities’ maps are easily applicable to horizontal panels without any immense distortion. Does that mean New York City cannot have horizontal subway maps? How about starting from perpendicularly turning your head?
The idea is implicated from the century-old horizontal subway maps. Battery Park, where the history of New York City began, is placed on the center of the map. Manhattan, the most famous and attractive borough in New York City and also in the world, is rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise but placed at the bottom of the map to minimize a distance from viewers who will be looking above; possibly benefiting about 65 million tourists per year and 617,000 supercommuters, aka interstate commuters, per day heading in and out from Manhattan.
In contrast to the current subway map, every detailed information including stations and routes follow ‘hidden’ grids that are organized and make them easily readable and searchable. Floating icons and numbers have dramatically reduced and each station’s information is adjoined together to minimize confusion from nearby stations. The map emphasizes a simple but clean diagram that delivers a straightforward message to viewers and ultimately become a map that people have to and want to look at.
One of the most important guidelines to this new map is to maintain legends and acronyms of the existing subway map. But in order to prioritize and clarify information, there are few updates to icons and new information such as informing additional payment needed for JFK-bound Airtrains and proposed/planned routes (Q Line Extension, Second Avenue Subway, Triboro Line, BQX, etc). These updates allow the subway map to acquaint a transparent message to commuters and tourist fostering better wayfinding. Also whenever station updates occur, placing a temporary sticker that reflects up-to-date information can reduce the number of subway maps to be printed.
There could be a possibility of confusion with the existing subway map due to dissimilar orientation. And of course, it is valid to argue that the horizontal map is geographically inaccurate in many boroughs as you move further from Manhattan which could be misleading, but the attempt is to bring back the dignity of the old horizontal subway maps and retrofit into an existing subway network to prioritize visibility for commuters, and strengthen underground public realm that will empower public transit for New York City communities as a collective.
Replacing subway maps on the existing subway interior ads above doors can contribute to many aspects. People who tend to stand more around doors will have a closer correlation to the subway map and receive a clearer data of departure, transfer, and arrival stations during their trips. Looking up more means less screen time on personal mobile phone and tablets reducing eyestrain and neck/shoulder pain that contributes to overall public health.
Future of subway maps
“You’ll see more ads on your commute, thanks to thousands of new digital screens coming to subway cars and stations.” link
— Dan Rivoli, Transit Reporter of NY Daily News
Subway cars and stations will get more digital screens to modernize public transit with informed service changes and boost advertisement revenue. More commuters are starting to interact with these screens, and remarkably the current subway map fits well into the screen, questionable if the screen had to be stretched in order to accommodate the map.
It would be ideal to maintain routes you planned on a platform and hop on a train but with unexpected delays and reroutes, as most New Yorkers are familiar with, it is merely impossible to forecast these changes along barely any internet service on the middle of tracks. You start to become uncertain and worry about your planned schedules and all you can rely on is an announcement from an MTA employee. Especially elderly people or those with earphones on who weren’t aware of unexpected circumstances even freak out more when they couldn’t understand from a speaker’s breaking voice or miss the announcement.
“The MTA plans to add 16,000 digital displays to subway stations and 37,000 to subway and commuter rail cars. While the brightly lit screens could look jarring juxtaposed with decaying, stained tiled walls, they come at no cost to the MTA. Outfront Media is responsible for the financing, installation and maintenance of all the displays.” link
— Vincent Barone, Transit Reporter of AM New York
Based on expected complimentary upgrades, it is crucial that these new digital screens should not only be fully permeated with private ads but also act as a moderator between commuters and service changes. So if we possibly know in the near-term that subway stations and interior cars will be filled with digital screens, why not also start preparing better transit guidance on both digital and analog system that enhances accessible information and user experience on top of these cyber infill?
How do you rethink the New York City subway map?
About the Author
Jun Seong Ahn is a Seoul-born, New York-based architectural and urban designer at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). He strongly desires in designing a city, architecture, and space for people with strong dignity. Jun’s mission as a designer is to confront conflict, inequality, discrimination, and deficiency by creating an innovative strategy and finding opportunities through mutual intervention to revitalize humanity. More than architecture and urban design, Jun seeks to discover a new way of communicating society and culture through innovative technology and unprecedented design techniques.
For more information regarding the author and project: A Human Network
Note: The subway maps in all photos above are imaginary and don’t physically exist. The map is in a preliminary stage, geographically inaccurate, and only for experimental use which does not have any relationship with MTA nor has been approved for official use. AHN is not responsible for any consequences caused by misleading information.
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