Map of the Day: Subway Lines

Bryan Haggerty created a totally stripped-down version of the NYC subway map, reducing it to "expose the grand complexity of this weaving system of people movers." He writes:

This reduction evokes an interesting view into the history, sprawl, and the expansiveness of New York City’s subway. Through abstraction of the subway map, the often spoke of, subway as the arteries of the city, is made unequivocally clear. No borough or neighborhood is given prominence, only its veins are shown, almost like a medical illustration of the human circulatory system.

We'll also say this - it's very pretty.

Haggerty is a fan of the current subway map, designed by Michael Hertz. We interviewed Hertz, who said, "The [NYC] system itself is far too complex for any map alone to answer every question. A map can only work in concert with other elements like good signage."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on November 20, 2007 4:20 PM

Comments [rss]

Think2wice

Re: #21

Absolutely brilliant = Michael Hertz's humanism + Vignelli's pragmatism + Still have an effective design.

businesscheese

I like this one:

http://flickr.com/photos/businesscheese/sets/72157603254275138/

akachris

I don't know if Staten Island is chopped liver or not, but it's definitely chopped off [the map]

aprilnyc

Ummm, Is Staten Island chopped liver?

Spirit of 76

"The Kick Map = absolutely brilliant."

Are you kidding me? The Kick Map is not much more than an updated version of the Vignelli map the MTA used in the '70s. Hardly original, although I still like that design after all these decades.

babyhitler

I hope the artist who did this reads this post and comes away with the fact that "He/She Sucks and is an unoriginal bastard"

freddyhere

haha of course, hipster graphic arts geeks....

parableink

Yup! Some wonderful customer of mine (or two) took the time to note my t-shirt design which has been out now for 5 straight seasons, almost 5 years. Thanks! Check it out at http://www.parableink.com/designs/subwaymap.html

Think2wice

Hiding the layers of the subway map pdf on Illustrator = child's play.

The Kick Map = absolutely brilliant.

EricGewiz

si rail shouldn't be on this. by that right, the lirr and metro north should be on it, considering they run in the city, and have stops there, and appear on the general subway map.

dhouse

check here for line drawing maps of subways from around the world at the same scale. Very cool:

http://www.fakeisthenewreal.org/subway/

and also here for north america:

http://www.radicalcartography.net/?subways

David

I much prefer this version. http://www.kickmap.com/

iralarry

And where is the damn ferry you so eagerly ride for free and find the best priced beer anywhere in NY on?

iralarry

Yea, so what. Where is the Staten Island railroad? Over here!! We're over here. Yes, I know it isn't a subway, but it is part of the MTA and is on the regular map. Once again, SI gets shoved to the back. I thing we should secede and move to NJ...wait, I take that back. Oh hell. I guess we are stuck here.

matty

I like it. it shows that when the subways were built they had no idea where to go or what lines would be redundant. how most of those lines weren's shut down in a modern age shows how much nyc loves their subways and their commitment to them.

guacatela

the tshirt artist's name is angie velasquez (i've met her, she's really cool and very talented). yeah, the design is simple, but if gothamist is gonna recognize it then she deserves the props, not this haggerty guy.

http://parableink.com/designs/subwaymap.html

uskyscraper

Awfully familiar to this famous poster of many years ago...

http://www.alterego.co.uk/alterblog/THE-TATE-GALLERY.jpg

bubbajones

took me longer to make this account than the "map", but the MTA pdf is locked so i recommend going to: http://www.cs.columbia.edu/opensig2003/subwaymap.pdf

EricGewiz

Seriously - t-shirts in SoHo on weekends....I've seen it there for at least a year and half with this design.

mikesieben

Sickening Art-Speak

ed_Extinct

taking the downloadable PDF from the MTA website bringing the file into illustrator and stripping it down would take less than ten minutes.

congrats.

David McCaffredy

Oooh - it would be cool to get a large print of that.

tracybluth

There's a designer who sells t-shirts with this abstracted subway map on them. She's on Prince Street in Soho on the weekends. They're beautiful!

Tom from the Bx

De Kooning, right?

konakazi

This is news? I have illustrator and ten minutes on my hand too. Why does tracing a couple of lines make for an article on Gothamist? Do you owe this guy money?