Some people like diagrammatic, or non-geographic, subway maps, others prefer
geographic subway maps, so John Tauranac, the award-winning map designer and
New York City historian, decided to do something never done before – appeal
to both camps in one publication. In the diagrammatic maps, the system is everything.
One map provides detailed information on daily subway service from 6:30 a.m.–12
midnight.
It shows what service stops where and when by color coding service. A black
number or letter for full time, red for weekdays , blue for rush hours, and
so on. A second diagrammatic map shows late-night service, because the difference
in service between day and night is the difference between night and day. And
service guides complement them both. People are keenly aware of when a subway
is outdoors, so suns like this 
have been added to outdoor stations. “No U-Turn” symbols like this 
indicate
stations where you cannot reverse your journey without paying another fare.
The geographic maps subordinate subway service to show critical streets, places
of interest, colleges and universities, rail stations, parks – the places where
people want to go. An inset shows Manhattan at a greater scale. “One approach
might have one feature, the other another,” says Tauranac, “and each complements
the other. It is the cartographic yin and yang.”
Clarity is King
One of the graphic tricks to clarity is to ank the routes with a white hairline
over background colors and other routes so the colors don’t get muddied. And
taking a page from the London Underground map and the 1948 Hagstrom subway map,
a black hairline anks the yellow route so that the visually impaired can more
readily distinguish it. And critical information is always in the clear. A new
development is the coice of typeface. Tauranac had been using the traditional
Helvetica Bold for station names, but Myriad – and this text is set in Myriad
– is every bit as legible as Helvetica, if not more so, and Myriad takes up
less space horizontally. And that’s a real bonus where every pica counts. Station
names are in 7.5-point upper- and lower-case Myriad Pro Semibold, with streets
of operation in upper-case 7-point MYRIAD PRO REGULAR.
Full-Time Terminals, Part-Time Terminals, Etc.
Full-time terminals, such as the No. 2 above, are in the color of the routes
that terminate there, with the name of the station and the service in dropped-out
type (the exceptions are the terminals for the yellow line, where the type is
surprinted in black). Part-time terminals are in open boxes, with the text in
black, such as the No. 5 above. The No. 5 is extended from Bowling Green to
Flatbush Avenue weekdays, so the green line is dashed and the number of the
line at the station is in red as a ag; the terminal information is in an open
box with a green frame.
The Index of Stations Includes
the Daily Service at Each Station
As far as Tauranac knows, no other New York subway map includes an index of
stations, and not just an index with the usual grid coordinates but an index
with the daily service at each station. And since some stations travel under
two names, such as 34 Street-Herald Square and Herald Square-34 Street, Tauranac
lists both. The daily service, by the way, explains the red B’s and M’s above.
They both only operate weekdays.
A
Geographic Subway Map
A schematic map is great for some things, but it is convoluted, serving only
its immediate ends. A geographic map allows you to see where you are in relation
to places, and that, of course, is the point of any map in general. Parks, colleges
and universities, and places of interest such as museums, tourist atttractions
and historic houses not only put things in perspective, they are frequently
a traveler’s ultimate destination. Simple symbols are used to show institutions.
The commuter railroads are depicted by tracks, with the stations and station
names delineated.
Tauranac’s
Map Is Convenient to Use
The Tauranac map is designed with an accordion fold. You only have to open
the first two sets of vertical panels to see all of Manhattan Island and almost
all of The Bronx. It’s all on six panels measuring seven inches wide. Another
two sets of vertical panels – another seven inches in width – and you have almost
all of Brooklyn and Central Queens.
Other
System Maps, Well, Not So Convenient
Maps that require the entire map to be fully opened in order to see anything
are cumbersome, especially in a crowded subway car. To see all of Manhattan
on the MTA map, for instance, you have to extend the map its full width – all
23 inches of it – and then almost its entire height, and all because of the
map’s less than sensible fold. Talk about form not following function.