6 ms·

This feels like designers trying to make their mark, instead of judging the map by it's usefulness. Sure, traveling between any two points inside the subway is

• chmod775 5y ago
  Berlin uses very similar public transit maps - has done so decades. They're tremendously useful and I prefer them to the geographically accurate maps. Also if you want the station closest to a landmark, simply travel to the station named after that landmark...
  • mihaic 5y ago
    That advice could work in European cities, but NYC station names are often just the street number, and there might be multiple one with the same name (like 96th Street), but that are 1-2 km from each other.
    • KptMarchewa 5y ago
      That seems like a problem with station naming - how can you choose name that's not an unique identifier? How is Google Maps doing when you want to go to one of those stations?
      • woodruffw 5y ago
        NYC’s subway system was originally two separate private companies and, later, an additional third public agency. As a result, there were competing lines on different avenues — you could (and still can) take the 7th and 8th Avenue lines from many of the same street numbers. It’s not actually that confusing in practice in Manhattan, since the entire borough is a grid. Google Maps locates the correct station just fine (you can search by bullet), but it’s very easy to just follow the avenues to get to whatever station you want.
        • avianlyric 5y ago
          The London Underground was once 4 or 5 different private entities which all ended up slowing consolidating and eventually made public. But that hasn’t prevented TfL from giving stations unique and useful names. Hell, I think most stations in london have been renamed at some point, several of them have been renamed multiple times.
• gmueckl 5y ago
  Some subway systems display two maps for that reason: one is a schematic map of the network, clear and legible. The other one is street map of the city including the actual station entrances. You can use that to figure out which station to use.
  • mihaic 5y ago
    That actually sounds like the best solution, I do hope they put both maps side by side and actually observe people looking at them.
• avianlyric 5y ago
  > but what happens when you want to decide which station is closest to a landmark, or which would make for a nicer walk. Use a proper street map? That what we do in London. Find out destination on a street map, then decide which tube station to use. Then the tube map is only used to make routing decisions within the network, not broader navigation around the city.
  • mihaic 5y ago
    If I have to use a proper street map, it's probably on my phone, and that can also have the topological map and a nice guide in the same app. The printed map is primarily for people with nothing else, where their battery died for instance. It just feels like this project was designed in a clean room, and nobody spent much time in the shoes of the people using this.
    • avianlyric 5y ago
      You know you can print more than one type of map in a single piece of paper right? Equally you can put up more than one type of map on a wall.