Diagrammatic Maps of the New York Subway: An Historical Perspective

Abstract

Vignelli’s 1972 diagrammatic subway map is hailed as a design classic, but was dropped by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) after just seven years’ usage. Following an absence of a generation, a diagrammatic map of the New York City subway system has been reintroduced into the MTA’s information provision. A digital version came back in 2011 and continues in use with weekly updates on the MTA Weekender website; print editions were issued in 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2017 for special occasions and from 2017 onwards for travel advisory notices. To see this in context, we need to understand why New York City adopted a diagrammatic map (Salomon map 1958), route colour-coded it (D’Adamo map 1967), stylized it (Vignelli map 1972), replaced it with a geographic map (Tauranac map 1979), and re-imagined it for the digital era (Waterhouse-Cifuentes map 2011). Using primary sources, we characterise the birth, death, and rebirth of the diagrammatic map of the New York City subway.