Wonkblog explains "why designers can't stop reinventing the subway map." It's an abstraction problem generally solved by the London Underground nearly a century ago, but everyone wants to keep trying. Spoiler: it's because New York City's subway system is hard to map.
New York's system presents the biggest conundrum. It has more stops than any other subway in the world. And the network is layered with extra complications between local and express service, weekday and weekend routes. If it is not possible to truly design a perfect subway map, it is definitely impossible to perfect this one. This diagram of the system from 1958 was, at that time, the simplest map available for the whole network:
The latest effort to attract attention is Tommi Moilanen's.
I can't help but think there is more emotion involved than Wonkblog lets on. NYC's current map might be impossible to perfect, but does it really have to stay that terrible? The answer is YES! The locals like it just fine, thank you. They are attached to the classic "geographical" map—so much so that attempts to make it more geometric, more user-friendly, more explicable to outsiders, will always be rejected. Perhaps New Yorkers don't like their city's geography being made too abstract?
