At this point, all of the most useful real time navigational tools for regular subway commuters can be found on digital screens, but there is still room for traditional print. The MTA is testing out a new design, now on display at the recently-reopened 86th Street station in Bay Ridge. Starting this week, they put up six maps around the station to show some raw works in progress.
"We thought this suite of maps was a good way to understand various ways of getting around and we wanted customer feedback on it," said Joe Chan, senior director for digital content with the MTA who headed the project. "Especially since some of these maps are so novel to New York City and the subway system."
Those include two neighborhood maps, one of which shows things within a 20 minute walk, the other which shows places within a 20 minute bus ride and the connecting bus lines to that station. Then there are two kinds of station maps: a 2-D one and a 3-D isometric-type map of the station, which includes information like accessibility features and where you can get travel assistance.
And there are two system maps: one, which the MTA has never had before, is a geographic map of New York City. Chan said it provides "another perspective on how people can understand the systems and can understand the city and have a perspective on how to get around it." The other is a variation on the very popular 1972 Vignelli map, which is a non-geographic diagram of the subway system.
"It's a bit updated, it's not the same as the 1972 map," Chan said. "It more closely follows what some customers, especially map fans among our customers, might have noticed on a website we launched some years ago called The Weekender."
Chan, who describes himself as "the head of creative at the MTA," is currently in charge of a small team of designers, videographers, photographers, and now, map makers who take on projects like this to reimagine the MTA for the present.
"I think maps are as much about information and way finding as it is actually about storytelling," he said. "In a way, it's kind of like a story of how do you understand the city? How do you understand the subway system and the bus system? So we were thinking really hard about that and about how the traditional static maps that we're all been used to, how are they relevant in a digital age when real time information is really the most accurate kind of information?"
He added that it's possible the pilot could move to other stations, but for now it will live at the 86th Street station. There's no set end date for the pilot either, and the MTA hopes that riders can give feedback to decide on whether the new maps are useful or not (either by scanning the QR code there or by going to this website).
"We really want customers, both map fans and not, to let us know what they think and what they think is useful to them and what they would like to see," he added. "It's been a really interesting, fun exercise to find out how we can breathe life into this really old medium that is still so evocative, still so strong, and still so powerful."
We have reached out to the MTA for information on the cost of this project. Currently, the MTA is facing the biggest financial crisis in its history, losing around $200 million a week.
