Wednesday, October 27, 2021

NYC Transit Mapping Revisited

It's been a while since I've done any mapmaking, but the bug has bitten me again.  I've updated my NYC Airport Transit Access map, my NYC Transit Projects map, and my NYC Commuter and Intercity Rail map.  The changes I made consisted mostly of sorting the existing features into layers, and updating the colors and line weights.  Gurgle has made number of changes to their map interface since I started using it, and mostly not for the better.  But you get what you pay for.  Beyond that, however, those maps are somewhat outdated.

Because I want to preserve the old maps, I have created a new map which includes more details about the existing system, along with some expansion proposals.  One proposal is the IND Second System from 1929, which was a fairly ambitious plan that has only been partially realized over the years.  There have been many proposals, both simple and comprehensive, made since then, but trying to gather them all into one online map is not something I will get to anytime soon.  However, the map also includes my own proposal, which reflect the many changes to NYC from 92 years ago.

Of course, my proposal is a fantasy, as there is no chance of it being funded.  Due to the the SARS-COV-2 pandemic, Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway is on hold, as transit ridership in general has not recovered from the severe plunge caused by pandemic.  Subway ridership reached about 3.1M/day as of October 2021, but that is still far from the 5.5M/day average in 2019.  Given that transit receives intermittent federal funding in this country, I would not be surprised to see SAS P2 completion pushed out by at least 5 years.

In the meantime, enjoy my NYC Subway Lines and Proposals map.  Please note that it is a map of physical infrastructure, not services, so it does not convey the same information as the traditional NYC subway map despite some similarity.