Video for the weekend: When the New York Subway goes digital

Teaserbild Source: Asael Pena, Unsplash

The map of the route network of the New York Subway – or rather the MTA New York City Subway – is digital today. It shows in real time how the individual trains are moving. The video for the weekend presents the heads and above all the work behind them.

In 1904 the first subway thundered through News York’s underground. Today the New York Subway comprises 25 lines that serve 472 stations and cover a total of over 1,355 kilometers of track.

Almost as legendary as the subway itself is the map of the route network: a colorful branch of veins that stretches from Manhattan via Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn.

The map is now also available digitally, including real-time information: thanks to it, anyone who has to get from A to B in the Big Apple can find out where their line is currently and how long they have to wait. The card also provides information about delays, informs about canceled trains and knows when construction work is affecting operations.

Milestone in the history of the New York Subway

What does it take for such a map to be created? How do you display the lines in such a way that orientation is as easy as possible? Should the names of adjacent streets be given at the stations and if so, which ones? How does a user interface have to be designed so that everyone can find their way around and, above all, find their way? How does this affect the design? The short documentary “The Map” answers such questions: Filmmaker Gary Hustwit looked over the shoulder of the team at the digital agency “Work & Co”, which created the digital map.

With its digital version, the map is likely to have reached a milestone in its history. This is a special achievement in view of the fact that many of the infrastructures, some of which are around 100 years old, are still in operation and many areas of the metro system are still analog and not geared towards the digital world. “Many of our trains are from the 1950s,” explains Sarah Meyer, Chief Customer Officer at MTA, in the video.

Geometry versus geography

“The creation of the map was one of the most controversial projects in the New York design scene,” says Felipe Memoira of Work & Co. This is because three different companies originally built the New York Subway and there were three different maps.

In the 1960s, the three cards were merged into one. For this purpose, the designer Massimo Vignelli created a clear, schematic-looking map that was committed to modernity in terms of its design. But: The lines had little to do with the real route network and, according to Memoria, kept causing confusion. It was impossible to orientate oneself geographically.

As a result, the map was revised in the 1970s and geared towards the specific locations of the stops. “The new card was neither as clear nor as aesthetic as the old one,” says Memoria. It was about geography versus geometry. “A solution was not feasible at the time. But it was now possible. “ (May)