The
New York City Subway map is a mix of symbols that are intended to help riders navigate
the system. The New York Subway is a large and complex system that takes a bit
of time for those of us who did not grow up in New York to figure out. The map
covers 468 stations and 660 miles of track. For comparison the Bay Area Rapid
Transit System, the system I rode growing up, has 44 stations and 104 miles of
tracks.
While
many of the riders on the New York City Subway know exactly where they are
going, each car has a map of the subway system for those who need help finding
their way around.
While the trains that run on the same tracks go through all of the same stations some of them run express (eg: the 2 and 3 trains between Chambers Street and 96th Street). The express and local stations are differentiated on the map by the color of the station dots. The solid black dots are local stations and the white dots are express stations.
Because
the subway map is a system of symbols it can't tell everything about the subway
system. One thing that the map does not tell you how easy it is to transfer
from the local to the express train. At some stations, such as 42nd Street
Times Square 1, 2, 3 platforms, transferring from the express to the local
train only involves walking across the platform and at others, such as 34th
Street Penn Station 1, 2, 3 platforms, one must go down the stairs across and
then up on the other side. While
they are not reflected in the map they are important pieces of information to
know if you are trying to transfer between the local and express trains.
The subway map can't show everything in the subway system but it is a helpful tool
for
anyone who is trying to find his or her way. It is used as a filter to show the pieces of information that are important to lost riders.
1 comment:
This blog post reminded me of a book I recently read for my anthropology class, entitled "Silencing the Past", by Michel-Ralph Trouillot. You mention the idea that the subway map is a filter/system of symbols that cannot show every detail about the subway system. Trouillot discusses a similar omission of facts in a historical context, and notes that even the most objective and historical "record keeper" un-knowningly leaves large silences in their records, simply because they cannot write down every piece of information for every single day. With the subway system, obviously, this is a less grievous omission of facts, as it is merely related to day-to-day transport, and most people would agree there is enough information to get around. However, it caused me to question the authority of people in our daily, or historical, lives. Who are these figures that decide what information goes onto a subway map, or into a history textbook? Why are these people considered authority? How often is the subway map revitalized, or reanalyzed (or a textbook, for that matter)? We live in a world of social constructions, and symbols, and though we occasionally question them, we rarely notice the spaces or silences present.
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