In 1940, all three companies amalgamated as one city-run body, the Board of Transportation. sold maps that displayed all three networks on one page for the first time. Each produced its own maps, most of them incorporating some color elements. Three separate companies originally operated subways within the city: the Interborough Rapid Transit Co., or IRT, which opened in 1904 the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Co., or BMT, which opened in 1923 and the city-owned Independent Subway System, or IND, which opened in 1932. 11, in a Transit Museum presentation titled 'Coloring the Subway Map,' he’ll discuss the genesis of the color-coding system, and how and why it shifted over the years. Lloyd co-authored ' Vignelli: Transit Maps,' and is working on a series of books tracing the history of subway maps. The color is an easy way for people to absorb that complex information.' “When you try to map it out, it's not simply laying out the lines on a sheet of paper. 'The New York subway system has multiple layers of information,” Lloyd said.

And neither would be coherent were it not for a color-coding system developed over the course of decades.Īccording to historian Peter Lloyd, color-coding the map has been key in helping people better understand and navigate the city. Is it better to be minimal and only include information that will help you get from point A to point B? Or should it act as a more holistic guide, showing the relationship of NYC landmarks to the stations?īoth maps resulted from years of various designers and cartographers tinkering with disparate design concepts. The debate hinges on philosophies of communication and graphic design, as well as how one feels about the role of a subway map. The matter is far from settled: Tauranac's vision is still largely used today, but Vignelli's design is tapped for merchandising opportunities and app development. For New York City transit buffs, it's about which subway map is superior: Massimo Vignelli's diagrammatic, aesthetic '70s map, or John Tauranac's geographic one. Some cultural debates are lodged into our collective consciousness: Beatles versus Stones, “Star Trek” versus “Star Wars,” Coca-Cola versus Pepsi.

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