The subway is one of New York City’s greatest assets, but this only holds true if you can actually navigate through the various tunnels and platforms. And despite the countless transportation apps out there today, the good ‘ole subway map is still the best way to find your way around. There’s certainly been no shortage of map redesigns, but 6sqft is particularly impressed with the stylings of this new map by Tommi Moilanen, a Finnish industrial and interactive designer. His version uses the system’s existing design language, but incorporates a fresh, modern aesthetic.

The NYC subway map has become an interesting piece of the city’s iconography, and the most celebrated is the 1972 version designed by Massimo Vignelli, the man also responsible for designing the signage (still used today). This version however isn’t what we currently see in subway stations as Vignelli’s map was replaced by a less abstract interpretation in 1978. The 1978 replacement was also more geographically accurate than Vignelli’s, but did not incorporate the graphic style from the existing system. What we love about Moilanen’s new design is that it is both geographically and systemically accurate. Plus, he successfully incorporates simple design details that make the map easier to read and the subway system easier to navigate.

Moilanean’s map (left) compared with the existing subway map (right)

Moilanen lived in the city for a year prior to beginning the design of his map, and he used that time to identify major problems he wanted to address. One of them was finding a way to effectively communicate which lines run express and which local. His solution—the new design illustrates weekday peak hour services using thick lines to represent express services and thin lines for local. Additionally the skipped stops are tinted a lighter shade. To ensure that this clever detailing is understood, Moilanean’s map features a simple legend to efficiently define the rules of the map. Other notable features include the accurate location of the five boroughs to help riders know when they should be looking for a “Queens bound” or “Brooklyn bound” train.

To learn more about this useful map and Moilanen’s process, check out his project description and website.

[Via Medium]

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Yesterday, 6sqft brought you this modern subway map redesign by Tommi Moilanen. His version keeps the current map’s basic structure, but infuses it with a bit of Massimo Vignelli‘s famous graphic style. Geographically and systemically accurate, Moilanen’s map also uses thick and thin lines to represent express and local service; tints skipped stops a lighter shade; more clearly locates major transfer points and station names; and includes an easy-to-use legend. Though this all sounds great, some New Yorkers will not want to part with the subway map they’ve gotten so accustomed to — what about you?

The existing subway map (left) compared with Moilanean’s map (right)

Image via FEMA

There’s so much to kvetch about when it comes to the MTA and poor subway service: unprecedented debt, increased ridership that hasn’t been matched with increased service and outdated technology to name a few. But here’s another to add to the laundry list: closed station entrances. amNY reports today that one out of four subway entrances are closed at a total of 119 stations, which “create bottlenecks that make it difficult to get in and out of increasingly jam-packed stations, while stores miss out on the foot traffic.” In total, a whopping 298 staircases are inaccessible, and some closures have been in effect for so many decades that the MTA doesn’t even know why they’re not in use.

amNY points out that the closures aren’t just at lightly trafficked stops; Penn Station, Times Square, Grand Central, and the Barclays Center all have them. There are the most closures in Manhattan at 48 stops. Brooklyn has 41. This includes blocked-off staircases and entire fare areas that are closed. The paper notes that “many were shut down because of security issues, when crime was higher and ridership lower, as well as to save money on station agent staffing.” But now, riders and even some city officials are calling on the MTA to reopen the entrances. The agency responded with a statement: “The MTA has been setting modern ridership records almost every month, and as we try to accommodate more than 6 million customers on our busiest days, we’re looking at ways to expand capacity everywhere in the system — including analyzing whether some closed parts of subway stations could be reopened.”

[Via amNY]

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The New York subway system is a complex but pretty efficient network that (for the most part) gets us to where we need to get when we need to get there. But that’s not to say there aren’t some neighborhoods that wouldn’t benefit from a few more stations—and better connections from one line to another. Well, if you’re a savvy straphanger that thinks that you can engineer a far more efficient system than the MTA, the game Mini Metro is the perfect place to flex your dormant urban planning skills.

Created by Dinosaur Polo Club, the game starts off by giving you, the player, three stops, each labelled with a shape—a circle, triangle and square. The idea is to draw lines between these stops to create a network that will bring passengers of corresponding shapes to various destinations across a city. “Everything but the line layout is handled automatically; trains run along the lines as quickly as they can, and the commuters decide which trains to board and where to make transfers,” say Mini Metro’s creators.

However, as more stops pop up, more links need to be created, and the challenge becomes doing it in an efficient way that will keep passengers moving at a brisk pace. If an excess number of passengers end up waiting too long at one stop or another, your whole system gets shut down and the game is over. Although, one saving point is that you can you can demolish and build lines anew as you please.

Want to give it a try? You can download the game here; it’s available for Mac, PC and Ubuntu. Mini Metro also lets you flex your subway planning skills in other global cities like London, Paris, Berlin and Hong Kong.

[Via Boing Boing]

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Image via MTA/Flickr

Admit it–despite your general concern for the well-being of your fellow New Yorkers, you can’t help roll your eyes when that dreaded “sick passenger” announcement comes over the subway intercom. “Why get on the train if you’re not feeling well?” or “Can’t they just move the person to the platform?” are common moans heard during these all-too-common delays. But, it turns out, it’s a lot more complicated than that.

The New York Times took a look at the rise in sick passengers, up to 3,000 a month this year as compared with 1,800 each month in 2012. Every time this happens, the train crew has to notify the rail control center, who then will call an ambulance. It depends on the specific station and time of day how long it will take emergency medical workers to locate the sick patient. Then, if it’s deemed the passenger cannot safely walk, he or she must remain on the train to be assessed. Further, if the passenger has no one to wait with them and there’s no police officer available, it falls on the train conductor to stay with the patient until help arrives. This can lead to the train being pulled out of service altogether. And of course, the delays start a ripple effect throughout the line.

The MTA says most instances of sick passengers are those who have fainted or vomited, but sometimes it’s something more serious like a heart attack or even death (“sick passenger” does not mean a track suicide as many suspect; those instances are referred to as “police investigation”). But riders still feel that one sick person should not delay thousands of others. Back in the late ’90s, the issue was addressed by stationing nurses in several busy stations. This ended in 2008 with budget cuts, but a new ad campaign asks riders who feel ill to get off at the next stop and ask for help.

[Via NYT]

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An open gangway subway in Berlin, photo via Second Avenue Sagas

Despite the improved service that the MTA has been promising, most New Yorkers still find themselves crammed into subway cars like floundering sardines. But a newfangled, more spacious train could increase capacity by 8-10 percent.

Second Avenue Sagas explores part of the MTA’s 2015-2019 capital plan, released earlier this fall, that calls for the purchase of “10 open-gangway prototype cars with the $52.4 million expenditure allocated for 2016.” This type of train, basically one long subway car with no doors in between, is popular all over the world, in most cities in China and Japan, in Berlin, Paris, and London, to name a few. It’s not known yet when exactly they’ll make their debut, how they’ll be designed, or on what subway line they’ll run, but of course the new idea comes with some concerns.

One of the concerns is purely logistical, as certain curves along Lower Manhattan tracks may inhibit the open gangway model. Crime is the other biggie, causing some to worry that the ability to roam freely through an entire train helps criminals escape and cause more harm. There are other less serious arguments, such as odors from homeless riders wiping out more than just one train car.

Gothamist reached out to MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg who said, “We don’t take major changes like this lightly. We really need to see some of these trainsets in service before we can evaluate how they work, whether they have unanticipated consequences, how the advantages balance against the disadvantages, etc.”

Before you get too excited, keep in mind that under the capital plan 950 new subway cars will be purchased, all expected to last about four or five decades, and only ten of these will have open gangways. Meaning the city will not entirely adapt to the worldwide norm any time soon.

[Via Second Avenue Sagas]

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• Think You Can Design a Better NYC Subway System? Try It With Mini Metro

Via *Bitch Cakes*/Flickr

Regardless of your faith, the holidays in New York City are a one-of-a-kind experience that many of us look forward to all year. For die-hard New Yorkers, it’s not so much about the big attractions, but the smaller festivities that show the spirit of the city. Here at 6sqft, one of our favorites is the MTA’s and New York Transit Museum’s Nostalgia Trains. According to Gothamist, this year, they’re rolling out eight subway cars from the 1930s to ’70s and vintage buses from the 1940s to ’80s, so holiday shoppers and history enthusiasts alike can revel in a little old-school charm.

Via *Bitch Cakes*/Flickr

The Nostalgia Train fleet began running yesterday and will operate for the following three Sundays. The trains will make local F line stops from Queens Plaza to 2nd Avenue from 10am to 5pm, and the first run of the day will include an onboard pop-up museum. The buses will run along the M42 route on weekdays until December 18th, and more will be on view at Union Square, Herald Square, and the Circle Line Terminal.

[Via Gothamist]

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For reasons unknown, the third Thursday in October is traditionally one of the busiest days for the NYC subway. Last year, on October 30th, a record was set with 6,167,165 passengers, and now, the MTA has put out a press release announcing that this past October 29th, this record was smashed when 6,217,621 customers swiped their MetroCards. “The new record day was one of five days in October when ridership exceeded the prior year’s record, and was one of 15 weekdays with ridership above 6 million. Daily subway ridership records have been kept since 1985, but the new record is believed to be the highest since the late 1940s,” the agency reports.

The release continues:

October 2015’s average weekday subway ridership of 5.974 million was the highest of any month in over 45 years, and was 1.4% higher than October 2014. Approximately 80,000 more customers rode the subway on an average October 2015 weekday than just a year earlier – enough to fill more than 50 fully-loaded subway trains.

Ridership surged on the weekends as well, with the average weekend ridership higher than any October in over 45 years. On Saturday, October 31, 2015, the day of the Village Halloween Parade and a Mets World Series game, 3,730,881 customers rode the subway – making it the fifth-busiest Saturday on recent record.

Additionally, ridership has spiked in northern Brooklyn, where legs of the A, C, G, J, M, Z, and L lines have seen an average of 14,733 more riders since this time last year. And to put all these figures in perspective: “Between 2010 and 2014, the subway system has added 440,638 daily customers, roughly the equivalent of the entire population of mid-sized cities like Miami, Fla. or Raleigh, N.C.”

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Most New Yorkers would be overjoyed if they only had to witness their subway station for a hot second. But since we can’t teleport, this video from Snowday is the next best way to live out our fantasies (h/t Fast Co. Design). Titled “Stations: A Quick Scan Through NYC,” this two-minute video was shot over ten days at 120 subway stations throughout the five boroughs, compiling footage as if the viewer were changing television channels. The quick scan, which features a somewhat odd blend of scripted scenes and documentary footage, is meant to evoke the “unique texture of New York…in a new and compelling way.”

Stations from Snowday on Vimeo

The video comes courtesy of collaborative filmmaking group Snowday, made up of director Roddy Hyduk and producers Chelsea Hyduk, Josh Buoy, and Meredith Finch. Hyduk told Fast Co., “There are so many layers of information to be absorbed within the context of each individual station. Imagining what’s happening simultaneously across the entire system sparked my initial curiosity. This required staying a while in places where millions only ever consider passing through as quickly as possible.”

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Is there anything in NYC that Governor Cuomo does like? He started his crusade to overhaul our infrastructure back in July when he revealed renderings for a $4 billion update to LaGuardia Airport. But this past week he pulled out all the stops, starting with a $3 billion redevelopment of Penn Station, a $1 billion expansion of the Javits Center, and now, a massive undertaking to “modernize and fundamentally transform” the MTA and the subway. Curbed reports that the Governor’s latest plan includes expediting the addition of more countdown clocks, adding contactless payment by 2018, equipping all stations with Wi-Fi by the end of this year and cell phone service by the end of 2017, and outfitting both subways and buses with USB chargers.

The countdown clock initiative will start as early as this year along the 7 and lettered lines, and it’s expected that 4,000 subway cars and 1,500 buses will get the USB ports. The new payment system will allow riders to use a QR code on their smartphone in lieu of a MetroCard. Additionally, the plan includes a revamp of 30 subway stations, so that they’ll be easier to navigate by 2020. This last bit, however, comes with some unfavorable news: To get the job done, the stations in question will be closed for six to twelve months, instead of just on nights and weekends (h/t Gothamist). Here’s a map of the 30 stations:

In a press release Governor Cuomo said, “This is about doing more than just repair and maintain, this is thinking bigger and better and building the 21st century transit system New Yorkers deserve. We are modernizing the MTA like never before and improving it for years to come.” But he hasn’t specified where the funding would come from, and to make the plans a reality, the state would have to approve the MTA’s capital program. Some skeptics also argue that finishing the Second Avenue Subway and dealing with delays and overcrowding are more important than charging a cell phone.

[Via Curbed and Gothamist]

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All images via Governor Cuomo

Image via Allen1628famm/YouTube

The MTA’s announcement of possible plans to close the L train for months or even years at a time to repair the Hurricane Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel has businesses scrambling and commuters (the train has 300,000 riders on the average weekday) fearful. Data mapping company CartoDB offers a bit of “location intelligence” to better understand the consequences of a shutdown for people living in Brooklyn and, more importantly, what some realistic alternatives to the L train might be.

For example, shuttle buses: “If the shuttle bus takes 20 minutes, we are able to calculate the best choices for riders along the L needing to get to Manhattan. Should they go all the way to Lorimer and take the shuttle bus or should they transfer earlier at Myrtle-Wyckoff to the M train or at Broadway Junction to the A?”

See the map below for the answer:

This map shows the breakdown of where L train commuters to Manhattan would be distributed to if there was a 20 minute shuttle bus from the Lorimer station in Williamsburg. The options are, take the bus, transfer to the M at Myrtle, or transfer to the A at Broadway Junction.

Keeping in mind the location of the Williamsburg Bridge, CartoDB worked under the assumption that the buses would originate at or near to the Lorimer station in Williamsburg and terminate either on the Lower East Side or Union Square. Here’s the result:

We found that for a 20 minute bus shuttle service, all but 5 stops on the L, riders would be better off transferring to another existing line. The challenge that we realized was that the shuttle is the best option for almost 75,000 riders per day. Given large buses with 65 passengers this would still take 1,154 bus trips per day, or a bus every minute and a half or so. That’s pretending there are only completely full buses or rush hours. To handle this capacity they’d have to build a new bridge.

See more on the possibilities here>>.

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Commuting in and around NYC can at times be a daunting task, and with the all of the pending subway closures, things are about to get a bit more complicated. However, all hope is not lost, and a trouble-free ride to work right be in the near future. From a city-wide ferry system to cell-phone friendly subway cars, both Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio have several new initiatives in play to improve the city’s infrastructure. In addition to these ambitious government-backed measures, there are also a slew of motivated residents looking to make some changes, including a 32-Mile Greenway in Brooklyn and Queens and a High Line-esque bridge spanning the Hudson River, just to name a few. To keep your spirits high when subway lines are down, we’ve put together this list of top 10 transportation proposals for NYC.

1. Mayor de Blasio’s City-Wide Ferry System ↑

During the Mayor’s State of the City address this year he announced plans to implement a city-wide ferry system. The ferry service is projected to open in 2017. Unlike the existing East River Ferry the cost for each ride will be on par with a subway ride. The system will service several neighborhoods including Lower East Side, Astoria, the Rockaways, Sunset Park, the Brooklyn Army Terminal, Bay Ridge, Red Hook and Soundview, and should help the city manage its growing population. The map pictured above shows the complete system breaking down existing lines, those planned for 2017 and 2018 and those proposed. The plan is projected to costs $55 million.
Find out more here >>

2. An East River Skyway to Bring Brooklyn Commuters to Manhattan in Under Four Minutes ↑

With the development boom in Brooklyn bringing tens of thousands of new residential units to the market in coming years, commuting to and from the beloved borough to Manhattan will become increasingly more difficult, particularly if stations along the L train are closed. One solution that has been proposed to help the inevitable bottleneck for Brooklynites is the East River Skyway. The proposed arial gondola system will run along the Brooklyn waterfront into Manhattan bringing commuters over the river in 3.5 minutes. Williamsburg resident Dan Levy is the mastermind behind this urban ski lift, and he came up with the idea two years ago on a ski trip. He’s conducted several preliminary studies and has concluded that the system would be relatively fast and inexpensive to implement in a city like New York.
Find out more here >>

3. $1.7B Light Rail Connecting the Brooklyn-Queens Waterfront ↑

On the scale of commuting difficulty, traveling to Manhattan from Brooklyn or Queens is relatively low. However, traveling between the two outer boroughs is a difficult and timely endeavor. To help address this problem, a non-profit advocacy group called Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector have released a detailed proposal for a brand new light rail that would service ten Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods located along a 17-mile route between Sunset Park and Astoria. It has been estimated that the project would cost $1.7 billion to construct and some preliminary designs have already been released. While the billion-plus dollar figure may sound like a heavy price tag, the new line could also bring in $3.7 billion in tax revenue.
Find out more here >>

4. NYC’s Future Subway Includes ‘Open Gangway’ Trains, Wi-Fi, USB Chargers, and Mobile Payment ↑

Governor Cuomo is on a mission to upgrade NYC’s transportation infrastructure, and as part of his crusade “modernize and fundamentally transform” the MTA and the subway. As far as specific plans for the subway, it has been reported that some new trains will have open subway cars, similar to what they have in in most cities in China and Japan, as well as Berlin, Paris and London. Other plans include the addition of more countdown clocks, contactless payment and Wi-Fi in all stations by the end of this year, and cell phone service by the end of 2017. They will also be outfitting subways and buses with USB chargers.
Find out more on the “open gangway” trains here >>
More on the subway tech upgrades here >>

5. Governor Cuomo’s $3B Penn Station Overhaul ↑

An RFP for Governor Cuomo’s $3 billion redevelopment plan for Penn Station was sent out earlier this this month. The project will increase the size of the nation’s busiest transit hub by 50 percent and will connect to the current station by a network of underground tunnels. While there are several designs being considered the Governor’s office released, these renderings depicting a glassy light structure—a welcome change from the existing station that’s dark and dated!
Find out more here >>

6. The ‘Triboro Rx’ Subway Line to Better Connect the Outer Boroughs ↑

In addition to the Brooklyn-Queens light rail, a new report from the Regional Plan Association recently called for a Triboro RX subway line. The goal for the new line is to connect existing stops in the more far-reaching spots as well as add new locations. As far as costs are concerned the line will run mostly above ground utilizing existing freight tracks allowing for efficiency in cost and implementation. The 24-mile route, also knows as the X line, would run between Bay Ridge and Jackson Heights, and serve more than 100,000 commuters on weekdays. Additionally, the proposed line would connect with the 6, N, Q, 7, E, R, F, M, L, 2, 3, and 5 providing access to the otherwise Manhattan-centric subway system.
Find out more here >>

7. 5,000-foot Liberty Bridge Would Connect Jersey City to Battery Park City in High Line-esque Fashion ↑

While fast-moving transportation options throughout the city are being explored, Jersey City resident Kevin Shane longed for transportation options with slower pace. Frustrated with the traffic and mass transit plaguing his commute into the city, Shane enlisted Jordan Architects to help. The firm’s proposed solution is a 5,000-foot pedestrian bridge between Jersey City and Battery Park City. While the plan sounds overwhelming, it’s actually more feasible than one would expect considering the Hudson River is only about a mile wide. The bridge proposal is now being referred to as Liberty Bridge and boasts High Line-esque features such as views from 200+ feet, plantings, ADA-compliant access points, integrated seating, public art, solar panels, free wifi, and cafes and shops.
Find out more here >>

8. The 32-Mile Greenway That Would Connect Southeast Queens to Brooklyn ↑

This proposal includes a massive 32-mile path, known as the Southern Queens Greenway, that will connect several parts of Brooklyn with parks located in southeast Queens. A local group of enthusiastic cyclists are petitioning for the plan to be put into action. The idea was first presented to the city back in 2000, outlining the route that would connect Highland Park in Cypress Hill on the Brooklyn-Queens border with Brookville Park in Rosedale and Alley Pond Park in Bayside, both in Queens. The new greenway would make it possible for cyclists, joggers, and pedestrians to travel from park to park via Conduit Avenue, the Belt Parkway, Laurelton Parkway, and the Cross Island Parkway. More importantly, the greenway will expose “improved access to a spectacular waterfront and major employment destinations.”
Find out more here >>

9. $4 Billion LaGuardia Airport Overhaul ↑

Governor Cuomo recently revealed his much-anticipated plan to revamp LaGuardia Airport. In total, the overhaul will cost approximately $4 billion (although some estimate double that) and includes the consolidation of four terminals into one central hub, as well as relocating the entire structure two football fields south of its current location. Additionally, the proposed and controversial AirTrain, a rail system that will connect travelers to the 7 train at Willet’s Point, will be implemented, alongside a 24-hour ferry service operating from the Art Deco Marine Air Terminal.
Find out more here >>

10. JPods’ Solar-Power Commuter Pods Make Their Way to Manhattan, Maybe ↑

Secaucus, NYC’s neighbor, shares the city’s commuting woes, but they’ve been gearing up for a remedy, putting to test a new form of solar-powered public transit called JPods. The innovative system utilizes a combination of light rail and the concept of self-driving car suspended above street level. The best part, the dreamlike JPods system is designed to bring travelers as close to their destination as possible. The pods were first developed to transport small groups of people—riffing on the idea of a personal vehicle as opposed to a subway train car. In order to get people exactly where they need to go, addresses are entered into a touchscreen computer and the pods are able to communicate with each other when navigating the rail system to get folks to their destinations quickly and without fuss.
Find out more here >>

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Click here to enlarge map >>

Just yesterday, the MTA revealed renderings of what their open gangway subway prototypes will look like. As 6sqft previsouly reported, when it was announced that the new trains got a $52.4 million piece of the MTA’s capital plan, “This type of train, basically one long subway car with no doors in between, is popular all over the world, in most cities in China and Japan, in Berlin, Paris, and London, to name a few.” So just how far behind the times is New York City? An informative new map from The Transport Politic, which plots the cities in which riders can walk between cars, says pretty far.

An open gangway subway in Berlin, photo via Second Avenue Sagas

“Virtually every new metro or subway train purchased by transit agencies over the past ten years has been built with open gangways—allowing passengers to walk from one end of the train to the other. Except in the United States,” the Transport Politic says. To put this in perspective, 75 percent of non-U.S. metros have adopted open gangway trains, whereas zero percent of U.S. metros have. Interestingly, Honolulu is in the planning stages of bringing the open cars to their transit system, but they’re the only American city (New York is merely in the testing/consideration phase).

The MTA’s prototype renderings

Benefits of these types of trains include expanded capacity (by up to 10 percent, it’s estimated), reduced jams at doorways, and increased safety (if a passenger feels uncomfortable he or she doesn’t have to wait until the next stop to change cars). However, there are skeptics, as 6sqft explained: “One of the concerns is purely logistical, as certain curves along Lower Manhattan tracks may inhibit the open gangway model. Crime is the other biggie, causing some to worry that the ability to roam freely through an entire train helps criminals escape and cause more harm. There are other less serious arguments, such as odors from homeless riders wiping out more than just one train car.” The MTA will launch the ten new trains–which will replace those on the A, F, R, and Rockaway Park shuttle lines–by the early 2020s. They’ll have new amenities such as digital screens, free Wi-Fi, and USB chargers.

[Via The Transport Politic]

RELATED:

• ‘Open Gangway’ Subway Trains Getting a Trial Run in NYC
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New Yorkers are notoriously hard to impress, so it’s not surprising that some are finding fault with the MTA’s proposed open gangway subway trains, which are pretty much the norm everywhere else in the world. Despite the fact that they’ll reduce congestion and platform pileups, as well as reportedly increase safety, jaded city dwellers fear a rise in crime, a bigger homeless presence, and logistical concerns (okay, maybe that last one has some merit). Nonetheless, the city is set to launch the ten new trains as a trial run by the early 2020s. How do you think that’s going to go?

Images: An open gangway subway in Berlin, via Second Avenue Sagas (L); The MTA’s proposed open gangway design for NYC (R)

We’re hearing lots of anguish and anxiety over the possibility of an L subway shutdown for repairs for as long as a year or more, and we’ve taken a look at some possible solutions. Now, we’ve asked the real estate data geeks at NeighborhoodX to go a little deeper beneath the grumbling to find out just how much convenience can be had along that thin grey line, and how it stacks up against other neighborhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

So which other neighborhoods offer commute times similar to the L train stops—and—just as important when choosing a neighborhood–how do their rents compare? And if you’re living along the L, in light of the shutdown, what neighborhood alternatives do you have in the city that provide a similar commute?

The graph above compares the commute time to Union Square across various neighborhoods and stations throughout the borough. As NeighborhoodX co-founder Constantine Valhouli told 6sqft, “We wanted to offer a way for people to see what other neighborhoods had comparable commute times—and naturally, how rents factor into that.” On the interactive graph at NeighborhoodX’s site, you can place your cursor over each neighborhood to find out what the average rent is for a sample 500-square-foot apartment.

It turns out that some Manhattan neighborhoods (Murray Hill and Yorkville, for example), popular with professionals for their convenience, are about as commuter-friendly as some of the L-train ‘hoods that used to be considered way out there. Case in point: The commute time from the Morgan stop in East Williamsburg (about 16 minutes) is basically identical to the commute time from Murray Hill. Rents are somewhat comparable too, at a (per month) price per square foot of $49 and $56, respectively. However, you can probably get to Union Square from Murray hill in less than 16 minutes if you walk. Not so much from the Morgan stop…

Given speedier commutes than some might have guessed, prime Williamsburg starts to seem more affordable: Gramercy and Flatiron clocked travel times on par with the Bedford Avenue stop, but rents rung in at $71/square foot compared to Williamsburg’s $49. The DeKalb stop in Bushwick compares to Yorkville on the Upper East Side commute-wise, but rents are higher at $49 per square foot compared to DeKalb’s $33.

In other neighborhoods along the L train, rents ranged from below $19 (Canarsie) to $49 (Williamsburg) per square foot. As you reach the end of the L line, Brownsville, Canarsie and East New York show very low rent numbers, though commute time is the longest of all, bringing up a topic vital to any discussion of cities, and quality of life–we’ve previously covered the correlation between income and access to NYC public transportation.

According to Valhouli, “we’ve always believed that rents reflect the current conditions of a neighborhood and property…because rents reflect the amenities (or hassles) that will be experienced in the next 12 months of the lease…” But as yesterday’s town hall meeting on the shutdown showed, the MTA is providing little information on what’s actually in store for the train line, so it’s quite unclear how, if at all, service changes will affect real estate prices.

Check out the L Train infographic and more illuminating neighborhood charts and maps at NeighborhoodX.

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“If You Smell Something, Smell Something Else.” Those words introduce a handful of signs that have been popping up at a few subway stations around the city, including Canal Street, Herald Square and Union Square. And most people, quite frankly, would rather do just that, if they had a choice…and now they do. School of Visual Arts graphic design student Angela Kim was acutely aware of this fact, and she decided to add a few more to the collection.

Kim, whose thesis involves smell and design, wanted to get straphangers aware of the MTA’s inability to keep tracks and stations clean despite fare hikes–and to associate the information with our sense of smell. To that end, she put together some scents and set her “Scratch & Sniff” program in motion.

Using fonts and design that mimic the all-too-familiar subway information signs, Kim’s ersatz additions consist of pastel-hued scent strips infused with aromas like vanilla and lavender with instructions to scratch and sniff the “Odor at this station.”

Judging from the photos on Kim’s website, subway riders have been sniffing around, and seem to be welcoming the change in scent-ery. Find out more about the project at Angela Kim’s site, and watch a video of the project here:

[Via Untapped]

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Video and photos via Angela Kim

Map by vanshnookenraggen.com via Reddit.

We know the crowds that pack into our city’s subway cars each day are more than colorful enough, but the system also has a super-geeky color-coded navigation system that exists even outside of the main map’s primary colored lines.

The city-owned Independent Subway was opened between 1932 and 1940. Up until 1967, it was the last of three former competing subway systems, and contributed six major lines to what is now the unified New York Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, Q (partial). Squire J. Vickers, the system’s architect, designed a special color coding system for each station. Color coded stations were then grouped between express stations to make riders aware of the zone they were passing through. At each express station, the color of the tiles would change. Some station tile color patterns have been altered with subsequent renovations. The system map is based on the original color coding sheet from 1930. After WWII, almost all new subway stations featured their own unique architectural designs and colors

Color Chart of Stations on Independent Lines (New York Transit Museum) via nycsubway.org.

The color variations within this system are subtle: Though they’re grouped by color family, i.e. the five primary colors, different shades are used within those families. Color names are based on paint chips and Berol Prismacolor pencils. Red stations include “Scarlet Red,” “Carmine Red” and “Tuscan Red,” just to name a few, and “Light Green,” “Nile Green” and “Hunter Green” are some of the green family used.

Click map to enlarge.

As you head away from downtown Manhattan–either uptown or toward Brooklyn, the color changes each time you reach an express station. After that, all subsequent local stations have tiles in the same color group as the preceding express station. This presumably was done as a means for helping passengers remember where they should change trains to the local on the way home from work. The ‘G’ line skips Manhattan altogether, so it’s treated as if it’s pointing away from Manhattan in both directions; all stations from Court Square to Fulton Street have tiles with the same color group, namely green. Three different shades of green exist in this section.

For example, on the 8th Avenue (A/C) line from 14th to 145th Street, 14th Street is an express stop so it gets its own color, yellow. 23rd Street is a local stop so it keeps the yellow color. Express stop 34th Street gets a new color. 42nd Street is also express so it gets another new color, purple. Next, 50th Street, a local stop, keeps the purple color. 59th Street is an express stop, so it has a new color, blue. And so on (the color schemes cycle through the five primary colors). This was likely to have been designed so that riders had indicators to remind them where to switch from an express to a local train.

You can take a look at this key to find out the color of your usual station’s tiles.

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Cartographer Andrew Lynch has spent a lot of time looking at the NYC subway system. The CUNY Hunter alum recently perfected the entire system in a series of hypothetical but geographically accurate “Future NYC Subway” maps. But while studying the paths of the city’s most important people mover, Lynch noticed they looked rather lovely, but just too, well, cluttered. From this thought came a series of colorful minimalist subway line posters (h/t CityLab) that Lynch calls “totally accurate, totally useless,” but nice to look at nonetheless.

Lynch’s “Subway Infographics Posters” show individual subway lines, on a bright background of MTA-correct colors, with (actually useful) information on each line displayed at the bottom.

About the isolated subway line maps, Lynch explains, “The traditional subway map shows a distorted geography to make way-finding easier. This map shows the actual route of the subway, however, it places it in a vacuum for a minimalist effect.” He’s planning to delve into the subway systems of other cities in the near future.

You can purchase the colorful posters for about $25 each, here.

[Via CityLab]

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All images via Andrew Lynch

Image: Xymox/Flickr

Do you ever wonder what that black schmutz that collects on the subway platform is? Has all the discarded chewing gum in the world begun to mobilize? What if I put my bag on it? Slate’s What’s That Thing column appropriately examines the phenomenon: After repeated unreturned phone calls to the MTA, the intrepid journalists got “Gridlock Sam” Schwartz and his transit gurus on the case.

Finally the fine folks from the MTA rallied and gave name to the mysterious muck. According to NYC Transit assistant chief of the Division of Stations Branko Kleva, the stuff is mastic, a tar-like substance used to seal and waterproof the subway tunnels. When it heats up, (in the summer, for example, ironically from the heat generated by subway car air conditioning) it starts to “flow and drip down from the roof of the tunnel onto the platforms below.”

Image: Diego Torres Silvestre via flickr.

Slate further grosses us out: “In fact, you can often see stalactites (Greek for ‘that which drips’) of mastic forming on beams or structures right above the platform areas” where there’s a puddle of the stuff. It’s apparently unrelated to the mildly frightening “subway juice” that occasionally drips on the unsuspecting during rainy days (though that’s likely similar to the “building juice” found above ground dripping from scaffolding, which is a whole other can of worms.). The mastic actually seals the cracks, which keeps drips out, so evil points withheld for that. MTA officials say the stuff is benign, anyway, so you can go back to worrying about the germs on every available surface.

A subway filth two-fer. Image: Susan Sermoneta/Flickr

The only way to remove the sticky stuff from platforms is to “scrape them off, or powerwash them.” In this case the reporter found that his prime subject had been carefully scrubbed when he returned for further investigation, which means it is actually possible for the subway to get cleaner rather than dirtier, and that may be the real story here.

[Via Slate]

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The MTA is apparently well into the middle phase of its project to wire 279 below-ground subway stations with cell reception, but as Citylab recently put it, “there are still places you can’t make a call to save your life.” Into this unfortunate void comes the Subspotting project, brainchild of Daniel Goddemeyer and Dominikus Baur, which offers maps “illustrating the unequal geography of subway reception” and helpfully providing information on where you’ll be able to make a call or send a text while in transit. In addition to system and individual line maps, there’s an app that shows the quality of reception as different sized bars at each station, and MTA-sanctioned posters.

The project’s founders say it’s the first of its kind to map and visualize the cell phone reception available on all of the subway’s 21 lines, 469 stations and 660 miles of track. According to their press release, the Subspotting project logged the cell phone reception of New York City’s four biggest phone carriers (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint) across all 21 lines, 469 stations, and 660 miles of MTA track over a period of two weeks.

Click map to enlarge

The result is a map that gives us a visual overview of the electromagnetic fields of New York City’s underground transit system, highlighting the system’s dead spots, areas of spotty signals and available patches of connectivity, along with an app to get the info to go. It’s also available as a colorful poster for $40.

On the project site, you can select your subway line and find out where you can get service, on which carrier, and how strong the signal is.

So which lines do the best job in keeping riders connected? The Subspotting team found that, for example, the 7 and J lines had the highest level of coverage overall (79 and 75 percent, respectively); the G (surprise!) was the worst at 12 percent. The strongest reception on the L train could be found at 8th Avenue and 6th Avenue.

Here’s a video on the how the Subspotting project unfolded:

[Via Citylab]

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