My NYC subway map

[drekroid]

I made this map of the NYC subway. I think it turned out nicely. Let me know if you see mistakes, omissions, or if you have any other suggestions.

 

Thanks.

 

[Daniel The Cool]

Nice job

[peacemak3r]

Looks good, I would assume the faded lines are rush-hour services but there are full-time services faded too, why is that?

[RollOver]

The present current , like the and , runs every 10 minutes on middays, evenings and weekends. If you branch the north of 57th Street - 7th Avenue, you'll get about 15-20 minutes frequencies. May I ask, what is so wrong about just running the all the way to the Second Avenue Subway than this so-called split? Its not like there's track capacity problems forcing that issue. The point of the upper Second Avenue Subway is to alleviate crowding on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line.

[bobtehpanda]

The present current , like the and , runs every 10 minutes on middays, evenings and weekends. If you branch the north of 57th Street - 7th Avenue, you'll get about 15-20 minutes frequencies. May I ask, what is so wrong about just running the all the way to the Second Avenue Subway than this so-called split? Its not like there's track capacity problems forcing that issue. The point of the upper Second Avenue Subway is to alleviate crowding on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line.

 

It looks like it's a split, but I believe he's trying to show both in-service and under construction parts. What makes this confusing is that normally, under construction parts are colored a light grey or some other color to show "not in service", instead of an actual train color.

[Vistausss]

Nice job, but I see 2 things you missed:

 

-Maybe that's just me but I don't see the 2nd Ave station on the line on the map.

-No notice or light colored branch to indicate to 179th rush hour service.

 

Also, 1 other thing: maybe you could distinct SIR a little bit because right now it looks like it indicates being a subway line from St George to where your map ends.

[bobtehpanda]

1. It's nice that you use horizontal type for all of your stations, but there's ONE vertical label on the that really bothers me. You should also add a white outline to your text so that you can read them against various colors. Be consistent.

 

2. You're only allowed a certain amount of geographic BSing - you still have to maintain relative positions. 9th St PATH is on 6th Av, and Queens Blvd doesn't dip to the south till after Union.

 

3. Long Island Straight

 

4. The color of the water draws eyes away from the actual content of the map, you should make it lighter.

 

What program do you use? The shading and shimmering is cool (if not a bit distracting).

[drekroid]

1. It's nice that you use horizontal type for all of your stations, but there's ONE vertical label on the that really bothers me. You should also add a white outline to your text so that you can read them against various colors. Be consistent.

 

2. You're only allowed a certain amount of geographic BSing - you still have to maintain relative positions. 9th St PATH is on 6th Av, and Queens Blvd doesn't dip to the south till after Union.

 

3. Long Island Straight

 

4. The color of the water draws eyes away from the actual content of the map, you should make it lighter.

 

What program do you use? The shading and shimmering is cool (if not a bit distracting).

 

I've updated the map so that:

 

1) All labels are now horizontal

2) "Long Island Sound" is fixed

3) The water has been lightened - helps with reading overlapping text too

 

Geographic issues:

 

1) 9th Avenue Path Station - a bit hard to fix, maybe I'll fix that at some point

2) Queens Blvd - It needs to turn down a little early to meet up with J/Z lines at Archer Av, so I'm not sure how to fix that

 

Program used: GIMP

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

[drekroid]

Nice job, but I see 2 things you missed:

 

-Maybe that's just me but I don't see the 2nd Ave station on the line on the map.

-No notice or light colored branch to indicate to 179th rush hour service.

 

Also, 1 other thing: maybe you could distinct SIR a little bit because right now it looks like it indicates being a subway line from St George to where your map ends.

 

The 2nd Av   Station is indeed on the map.

 

I omitted   to Jamaica 179th Street since there are very few trips serving that branch. If I did include it, then I would also want to include the  branch to New Lots, and the   branch to Crown Heights. Overall, it would make the map more complicated, and perhaps less appealing.

 

I might work on the SIR line on a future version.

 

Thanks!

Looks good, I would assume the faded lines are rush-hour services but there are full-time services faded too, why is that?

 

Express services are faded to help distinguish them from the local services. 

The present current , like the and , runs every 10 minutes on middays, evenings and weekends. If you branch the north of 57th Street - 7th Avenue, you'll get about 15-20 minutes frequencies. May I ask, what is so wrong about just running the all the way to the Second Avenue Subway than this so-called split? Its not like there's track capacity problems forcing that issue. The point of the upper Second Avenue Subway is to alleviate crowding on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line.

 

This is not a proposal map.

 

I'm not sure what the plans are for the . Will it split? Or will all trips serve the Second Avenue line. If so, will extra trips be added to Astoria on the ? Or with a new line? Anyone know what the plan is?

[realizm]

 

Program used: GIMP

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

Ahhh so thats the program you used. Looks great.

[RollOver]

All trains are officially proposed to go up to the Second Avenue Subway after the first phase of the said corridor is completed. Whether they will add more trains on the entire line as yet to be determined.

[peacemak3r]

Express services are faded to help distinguish them from the local services. 

 

That makes sense I guess, but then I wonder why you'd fade the in Brooklyn since it's local.  Unless you mean overall express service.

[bobtehpanda]

The 2nd Av   Station is indeed on the map.

 

I omitted   to Jamaica 179th Street since there are very few trips serving that branch. If I did include it, then I would also want to include the  branch to New Lots, and the   branch to Crown Heights. Overall, it would make the map more complicated, and perhaps less appealing.

 

I might work on the SIR line on a future version.

 

Thanks!

 

 

Express services are faded to help distinguish them from the local services. 

 

 

This is not a proposal map.

 

I'm not sure what the plans are for the . Will it split? Or will all trips serve the Second Avenue line. If so, will extra trips be added to Astoria on the ? Or with a new line? Anyone know what the plan is?

 

To avoid confusion on this, it's usually better to just make "under construction" a very light grey line.

[Vistausss]

@drekroid: But if you don't include the to 179th, then it would be better if you were consistent and scratch the to Rockaway Park as well because the only has 10 rush hour trains a day to Rock Park. And the to Nereid you can also scratch because that's also only some trips in rush hour. Those are about the same as trips to 179th.

[bobtehpanda]

@drekroid: But if you don't include the to 179th, then it would be better if you were consistent and scratch the to Rockaway Park as well because the only has 10 rush hour trains a day to Rock Park. And the to Nereid you can also scratch because that's also only some trips in rush hour. Those are about the same as trips to 179th.

 

The runs every 8 to 11 minutes to Nereid during the peak, roughly the same amount of service that Dyre gets.

 

The runs 4TPH to Rockaway Park, 6 TPH to Far Rockaway, and 6 TPH to Lefferts.

 

The , in contrast, runs 3 TPH to 179th St, versus 12TPH to Jamaica Center.

 

The branches you listed get a roughly comparable amount of service to the main branches, while the gets peanuts. This is why the to 179th isn't shown.

[RollOver]

Thanks Bob for the clarification. That explains why there are more northbound trains than southbound in the morning rush and reverse in the evening rush. The seems slightly less frequent during off-peak though, with its headway being like say 5-10 minutes (west of Rockaway Boulevard) and 15-20 minutes (east of Rockaway Boulevard).

[BrooklynBus]

I didn't look at it closely to look for errors, but I think the general design looks great. I really like the idea of one color for express and another shade for local and the horizontal station names. The current map may be okay to distribute and for stations, but this is the map you should have in the subway cars because you already have an idea of where you are going and just need the map to check stations or alternate routes. You don't plan your trip once on the train. That's what the MTA fails to realize. The current map is just too complicated for use in a moving train.

 

Great job!

[Vistausss]

@bob: 3 trains to 179th? Dunno where you did your counting but it's 4 TPH to 179th for the  according to the schedule. And I dunno where you got your info on the to Rock Park but the schedule on the website clearly says there's only rush hour service to Rock Park by the (we're not talking about the ). And counting the trains on the schedule that either leave or terminate at Rock Park that makes up 5 trains a day. That's one more than the to 179th yet the map maker guy did include it on the map.

[bobtehpanda]

@bob: 3 trains to 179th? Dunno where you did your counting but it's 4 TPH to 179th for the  according to the schedule. And I dunno where you got your info on the to Rock Park but the schedule on the website clearly says there's only rush hour service to Rock Park by the (we're not talking about the ). And counting the trains on the schedule that either leave or terminate at Rock Park that makes up 5 trains a day. That's one more than the to 179th yet the map maker guy did include it on the map.

 

The fact that there's only rush service to Rock Park doesn't change the fact that there are 4 Rock Park departures in the PM within the same hour as 6 Lefferts and 6 Far Rock trains. 4TPH is still only a small percentage of the actual E trains terminating there, whereas 4 trains to Rock Park in an hour (6:39-7:39) is closer to a 25/37.5/37.5% distribution. It's all about relativity.

 

Besides, in the PM, the 4 trains that go to 179th St are spread out over 2.5 hours.

[drekroid]

2. You're only allowed a certain amount of geographic BSing - you still have to maintain relative positions. 9th St PATH is on 6th Av, and Queens Blvd doesn't dip to the south till after Union.

 

I moved the 9th Street PATH station to Sixth Av, and updated the map. Thanks for catching that one.

I think Queens blvd, however, has to stay as it is. There's no easy fix for that one. 

[Mtatransit]

@bob: 3 trains to 179th? Dunno where you did your counting but it's 4 TPH to 179th for the  according to the schedule. And I dunno where you got your info on the to Rock Park but the schedule on the website clearly says there's only rush hour service to Rock Park by the (we're not talking about the ). And counting the trains on the schedule that either leave or terminate at Rock Park that makes up 5 trains a day. That's one more than the to 179th yet the map maker guy did include it on the map.

Still if you want to include the to 179 you should also include the and to New lots Ave. It just doesn't make sense, they arent there for supplemental service, like the and , they end there because of capacity restrains, if thats not the problem, they would never end there. Like the the demand for drye Av line don't justify 5-6 min headway. And the there is extra service to serve the 8 Av line, so they end at Rockaway Park to give more service there because an train to Far rockaway leaves 4 min earlier or later.

[StevenFrancis]

Nice rendition of the map here !

 

To those  who are asking about the being split or only going via 2nd Avenue, I heard that it will be split because I have heard some pre made announcements and they say for example at 57th Street - 7th Avenue

"This is 57th Street - 7th Avenue... Transfer is available to the to Astoria and trains"

OR

"This is a 72nd Street - 2nd Avenue bound train via 2nd Avenue"

If the announcements have to clarify the route, then it is split, maybe the OCCASIONAL train may still terminate at 57th Street - 7th Avenue

 

BUT back on topic, this map kinda reminds me the Vignanelli version, my only issue is to the east of Forest Hills station, the lines split, but they actually continue straight east, but still a great job

[Broadway Local]

If the announcements have to clarify the route, then it is split, maybe the OCCASIONAL  train may still terminate at 57th Street - 7th Avenue

 

Oh hell no...

 

THE can update the announcements at any time on the NTTs. Plus, there can be low ridership on the between 57th St and 125th St. There's not even enough tracks at 57th St for split trains to terminate.

 

In my imagination, I believe more customers will say that it's pointless and frustrating to transfer to another train to continue their trip...

[Lance]

Nice rendition of the map here !

 

To those  who are asking about the being split or only going via 2nd Avenue, I heard that it will be split because I have heard some pre made announcements and they say for example at 57th Street - 7th Avenue

"This is 57th Street - 7th Avenue... Transfer is available to the to Astoria and trains"

OR

"This is a 72nd Street - 2nd Avenue bound train via 2nd Avenue"

If the announcements have to clarify the route, then it is split, maybe the OCCASIONAL train may still terminate at 57th Street - 7th Avenue

 

BUT back on topic, this map kinda reminds me the Vignanelli version, my only issue is to the east of Forest Hills station, the lines split, but they actually continue straight east, but still a great job

Just to address this, the announcement recordings can and have been changed to reflect the services that currently run. Those Q line announcements were recorded a few years back when the 160s first entered service. It's just unnecessarily verbose. I have a strong feeling they'll be changed when the 2nd Avenue line actually opens. Remember, the N also had some long-winded announcements for no real reason as well.

 

As to the actual topic of discussion, which is this map, overall it's a nice design.

 

However, I'm not liking the varying angles on some of the lines. Maybe it's because I'm a stickler for diagrammatic/schematic maps sticking to 45 and 90 degree angles, it sticks out so much to me. And yes, I'm aware this is probably intended to be a somewhat geographic map, the lack of any real locational landmarks makes it more of a schematic map to me. I can forgive the ones on 7th Avenue because it's because of spacial constraints (though that could've been solved by moving 8th Avenue to the left a bit), but the one on the Pelham line is in my opinion, unnecessary. If Whitlock Av wasn't on a straight vertical, the entire line could've easily fit on the same 45 degree angle the lower portion of the line is at.

 

Also, I don't like how DeKalb junction is handled here. To know which lines stop at DeKalb Av and which bypass it, you have to follow the lines to either their terminals or back to the Manhattan Bridge. It's especially noticeable on the 6th Avenue B and D lines.

 

With that said, the varying shades of color and separation of the local and express lines are a nice touch, if not a bit cluttered. Another nice thing about this map is the inclusion of the finished Capital Projects though they should be aptly labelled as such. By the way, I'm amazed this was done in GIMP. Maybe it's because I'm more used to Illustrator, I've always found GIMP to be a bit of a hassle to work with. But that's probably just me. All in all, It's a good map and if I had to give it a rating, it'd be four out of five stars.

[drumz0rz]

Very nice map, but I think the transfers / hubs could use some improvement. For example, someone looking at a subway map would likely be interested in transfers to other systems.

 

Things like the Port Authority Bus Terminal, Penn Station, WTC Transit Hub, Grand Central Terminal, Jamaica Center and Atlantic Ave / Barclays Center are points that should be easy to spot. You show the PATH / AirTrain but make no mention of NJT / MNRR / LIRR.

 

Also, you don't have a label for the WTC.

Otherwise, I like it.