Not being from New York City the term subway usually refers to those crummy sandwiches you get at the stores with pictures of a previously fat guy livin’ large (just not as largely as he used to). But after a recent trip to ‘the City’ I’ve become fascinated by the subway system in NYC. It just boggles the mind.
While travelling the vast underworld of Manhatten I saw those huge subway maps. I was wondering:
Can you actually buy one of those huge friggin maps?
and
If so, are there any NYC dopers who could get me one?
I’ll pay you for it and your trouble. But I’d really like to have one as a souvenier, if even a litle after the fact.
That all depends on what size map you want. For the most part, you can get them for free at ticket booths. The maps they hand out are a couple of feet square. AFAIK, the really huge ones that they post on billboards down on the platforms will cost you some money, if they’re even available.
Try this link: http://www.lirr.org/mta/maps.htm – it’s the maps home page for the MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) and should be much more helpful than I’m willing to be right now. Enjoy.
If you’re talking about those BIG-ASS maps that measure about 4’x5’ that they paste on the subway walls, I’ve got four crisp, unused ones – vintage 1990 – right here. [stuyguy pats big manilla envelope and grins like Sydney Greenstreet in Casablanca.] IIRC the MTA does not offer those babies for sale to the public. I got mine through inside channels.
Make me an offer.
(Of course you can go another route: follow Cap’n Crude’s link, click on Transit Museum, and go to the museum store link. They offer a subway map shower curtain.)
As others have pointed out, they give them out for free at the subway booths. You can get one on line at the link that Cap’n Crude provided, or, if you’d like, I’d be more than happy to mail you a new one.
Sutyguy: are you serious about having the big giant ones that they post on the walls of the subway stations? If so I want one! Lemme know if you actually have one and I’ll email you. (Or you can (mailto:friedo@friedo.com) me.)
I especially find the part about signals and signage fascinating…amazing that in our modern era the MTA still uses signalling systems decades old - and it seems to work quite well.
Are the 1990 ones before or after the change? IIRC, the MTA changed the maps sometime in the past dozen years or so, and the prior ones were heavily stylized.
friedo my friend, as a regular on this board you should know that when it comes to things NYC-related, stuyguy does not lie.
[Pardon me as I adjust my white linen suit and shoo this cockatoo off my shoulder while a fez-wearing dark-skinned man fans me and feeds me dates.]
Yes, I possess four crisp, new (but folded) 1990 giant-sized NYC subway maps – and no, I’m not talking about the piss-ant, dinky get-em-for-free-at-the-token-booth-maps-that-can-be-mistaken-for-postage-stamps that zev is hawking.
I will be delighted to entertain any offer you care to send my way. But be warned friedo my friend, stuyguy does not appreciate having his name spelled wrong so you better not insult me any further with unworthy bids. [And no, I don’t need any more piano players at my club.]
Sua, my maps are essentially similar to today’s design. There have been a few minor graphic/stylistic refinements (plus of course routing and system changes) since mine were printed, but nothing too drastic.
BTW, I loved those over-stylized subway maps from the 70’s/80’s that I grew up with – they were worthless for teaching geography (Manhattan Island was the Greenland of the subway map), but boy did they make the subway system understandable at a glance!
Those were the ones the were handing out back in the 1970s…a Sensitive Artistic Statement in the Field of Graphic Design, but SO heavily stylized as to be incomprehensible.
Here’s a copy of the 1972 version, which depicts the four boroughs as rectangles of various sizes, and shows all the train lines as being really really straight and parallel to one another.
Hey, they aren’t “can-be-mistaken-for-postage-stamps.” They are the same size as the ones hanging up all over the subway system. And I’m not hawking them, I’ll be happy to send it to James Carroll for free.
Uke, you know you’re still my favorite Doper – despite your misguided opinions of NYC subway maps. I’ll just chalk that up to the fact that you’re from Ohio.
I have to cast another vote for the 1970 stylized subway map – I loved it (they published it as a special insert in the New York Sunday News before it was generally released). A lot of cities adopted the same graphic plan of straight lines and multiples-of-forty-five-degree-angles for their subway maps. I have examples from Philadelphia, London, and Tokyo. But NYC was the first to dump theirs, for some reason, and go back to the 1960s plate-of-spaghetti maps.
Now, THAT’S a map! And you could ride the whole goddam system, all day, for one thin dime! And see the Dodgers at Ebbetts Field! And have a hamboigah at the Horn & Hardart! And take in a double-feature at the Roxy, with newsreel, cartoons, and comic short-subject!
Now, confess to your secret preference for MY map, Steuyguy…or my buddy zev_steinhardt and me’ll see yez sleepin’ with the fishies.
The ones I like are the neighborhood street maps, which, for each station cover a relatively small area of the streets around that particular station. I’d like to know where i could get ahold of some of those.
friedo & JamesCarroll, I’m feeling very generous today. If you’re still interested in one of those maps, email me and you won’t be disappointed.
friedo, I sent you an email already; James you appear one of those paranoid types – like Ukulele Ike, I might add – who won’t reveal your email address, so you’ll have to get in touch with me.