Subways are for sleeping: NYC Transit survival thread

xxxp Well it is from 2007. I can't blow it up anymore on my tiny screen so I can't see the station details.

did you pay for the full thing or just get the free ap?
xp

With all the non-subway information that the current MTA map does show - like the location of all the heliports in the city - it doesn't offer this simple but important piece of subway information indicating what station stop to get off to turn around in case you miss your stop.

Delightful!!!! I want this!

Yeah, separating the express and locals as distinct visual lines makes a LOT of sense. Sometimes I feel like the mapping is caught between practical-mindedness and hardcore transit blogger types who resist any change that would further obscure the physical geometry of the tunnels and their roots in the "IHT Nth Avenue Line" or whatever. I don't care, I basically want a network of warp zones where I can glance at the map, pretty quickly, and see what gets me where, with the fewest stops. I dunno if the Kickmap is nailing that 100% but it's better, and wayyyyyy less ugly. NYC is this viper's nest of graphic designers, it must be miserable for them to see the thing every day.

Weirdest thing about the Kickmap: it purges commuter trains! I guess that doesn't matter most of the time, but it's an important route option on weekends. Taking the subway to, say, Flushing Meadows is a real drag but for $1.50 more you can get there from Penn Station in like twenty peaceful minutes.

I think most transit nerds prefer the simplified map, to be honest! I mean, we've always got nycsubway.org if we want to look up track and yard maps or whatever.
kickmap does a some things that annoy me in a few places: there's a really dumb curve shown the G train between Fulton, Clinton, and Classon for instance, and the display of a lot of the streets is sort of nonsensical and might be better omitted a lot of the time. I have the pay version fyi... I like the neighborhood breakdowns (more to argue about)

Neighborhood breakdowns also just make it more fun to stare at the map while killing time at the platform IMO. They could make it a fundraising thing - pay a buck to suggest a change to your neighborhood's boundary, other people are paying to try and push it back or delete the made-up neighborhood entirely.

NB I have come close to passing out on the F platform at Herald Sq before.

― Orson Wellies (in orbit), Wednesday, September 24, 2014 10:02 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

Waiting for the F at West 4th once half an hour delay I got off the subway 20 pounds lighter from water loss

I am convinced that the downtown F is 2x-3x as frequent as the uptown and my friend disagrees

not at PM rush, it doesn't seem

and for weekend interborough travel i always forget to ADD AN HOUR

if you have not been at the west 4th station at 1am on a Friday night you are missing out

Every time I catch a train at 1 AM there the train stops in between stations to let off MTA workers

that stop is a serious melting pot crowded full of hipsters, homeless, businesspeople, dates, meatheads, tourists, kids, MTA workers and buskers round that time

It's mostly been NYU fratbros and their dates when I've been

i may be getting there a bit later than 1 to be fair
but there's always rasta guitar player and sometimes tap dancer and dulcimer player and always always some dude with a full fucking drum kit
and a lotta full-on fabulous queens and cranky old men and a churro cart lady and the dude who really should've taken an uber and is realizing that now

hey, some of these subway movies def worth seeing on the big screen (Pelham 123, obviously)... i've never even seen Style Wars or The Incident, among others.

http://www.bam.org/film/2014/retro-metro

http://www.villagevoice.com/2014-09-24/film/bam-retro-metro-review/

style wars is super great

I'll be seeing Pelham for surr

I've never seen a churro cart lady day or night at w 4 and that was my stop for a year

Minnelli's The Clock is really great.

dayo i'm back of the F train; i see churro carts out there about mid platform.
The Clock is A+, yes

i have never bought a ny street churro, can anyone confirm deny that i am missing out?

The Clock is splendid, but i believe it is alone in that series in being shot entirely in Hollywood USA.

6th ave L platform is where I always used to see the churro cart

got em a couple times and they were always super greasy and tasty

i used to work until 2am-3am in chelsea four days a week, which led to routine waits of up to 30 minutes at west 4th and/or jay street. pretty unpleasant, especially in summer. rat-sized cockroaches, dog-sized rats, etc

the people are interesting, but i didn't really want to have conversations with them, let alone stave off the paranoia of the fucked up ones

"and the train letter and number is on the side of every car at least once"

this is lies

i assume 'messy fonts' is a non-designer grasping at the idea that the signage on the MTA is absolute garbage both aesthetically and in a 'reliably showing you which way to go'

it's like the signage in an office kitchen

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/lu-signs-manual.pdf

Yeah, the number of times I've had to quickly step into a train just to see which train it is xxp

basically, the MTA has charm, and it's cool that it's 24h, but it's an embarrassment to the commercial capital of a developed country. that is how i break it down.

air conditioning is a good thing though.

i got food poisoning and threw up on the platform at highbury and islington tube last weekend by the way, so it briefly smelled a little like W 4. doing my bit for transatlantic cultural exchange.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/info-for/suppliers-and-contractors/design-standards?intcmp=5837

Can you still drink beers on the London Underground?

No ;_;

i got food poisoning and threw up on the platform at highbury and islington tube last weekend by the way, so it briefly smelled a little like W 4. doing my bit for transatlantic cultural exchange.

― caek, Thursday, September 25, 2014 9:09 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this would shut down the entire line for at least an hour in NYC iirc

due tew a sick paessenjuh

I thought that meant someone died?

prob just a bad churro

William Ronan, first chairman of the MTA, dies at 101

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3037304/slicker-city/william-ronan-who-masterminded-nycs-transportation-network-dies

You know one thing that's great, when you're on the local and the express gets going at the same time, so for a minute as you're cruising through the tunnels you can look through the darkness and see this other car, gradually falling out of sync with yours so you get this Edward Hopper Viewmaster reel of urban scenes, tableaus of people's lives: guy thinking, family chatting, tourists checking map, guy playing drums, and then - zip - the other train has descended to the lower level and it's all gone into the darkness.

yer not wrong Dr

still i think bcz of the novelty i prefer the pronounced looking-in-apartments views that are constant on the Chicago El.

what's not great is when you're approaching a transfer point and the train you want to switch to appears in the next tunnel over, passes you, and is just closing its doors as your train arrives

also when you're at west 4th and there's an announcement that the next express train is one station away and you're all like f u *which* express train goddammit

at Columbus Circle's A-B-C-D platform, the announcements differ btwn "express" and "local" tracks which is a completely meaningless distinction at that point.

What was up with the 4 5 6 this morning

http://blog.angryasianman.com/2014/11/man-killed-after-being-shoved-in-front.html

http://iquantny.tumblr.com/post/100729370274/found-the-brooklyn-residence-thats-farthest-from-the

http://media.tumblr.com/b87f9c89e2c8823de47e9b15e5b6400b/tumblr_inline_ndty2h3jZt1szvr4h.jpg

i guess the dark, dried-blood zones are where i should focus my housing search.

(except for Red Hook obv, where everyone just takes the IKEA shuttle)

yes the scabs are not up-and-coming yet