New York Subway X-Ray Area Maps | Hacker News Reader

New York Subway X-Ray Area Maps

projectsubwaynyc.com

216 pointscitrin_ru45 comments

Relevant: https://www.wired.com/2016/07/lose-tomoyuki-tanakas-x-ray-il...

TOMOYUKI TANAKA hand-draws ballpoint renderings of the innards of Tokyo's sprawling train stations.

Wow, those are amazing!

I've commuted through / worked near Shinjuku station (the first image) for 10 years or so. I'm still finding new places to get lost in. The fact that it seems to be perpetually under construction doesn't help things.

Beautiful but geez, Wired's headline typography is simply unreadable. It's such a pain to read.

I think you can thank/blame former Wired Editor in Chief, Scott Dadich for that.

The font is horrendous, too tall, and too compressed.

Clicked on this link expecting to see an expose on police-state expansion of x-ray usage into subways.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/10/the-nyp...

Glad to see this awesome subway-station depiction instead.

Transport for London produced similar drawings for all 124 Tube stations:

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2015/07/12/3d-maps-of-every...

It's a shame that they're not more complete. In reality Camden Town looks more like a motorway junction because it has to switch both branches of the Northern line in one place.

http://husk.org/www.geocities.com/athens/acropolis/7069/ltca...

For a 2D version, showing a track diagram for the whole London Underground network, there's an excellent map:

http://carto.metro.free.fr/cartes/metro-tram-london/

That's Camden Junction, which is not part of the station. The axonometric drawings exist for fire safety reasons AFAIK -- similar drawings are usually displayed somewhere in the ticket hall -- so details of the tunnels are out of scope.

(1927 drawing of the junction on this page: http://districtdavesforum.co.uk/thread/6095/camden-town-junc...)

I like that it's a non-blocking switch. There are alternatives which would restrict concurrent traffic between any two branches.

The 42nd street stop seems to be missing the 8th avenue line downtown platform.

Maybe it's just completely covered by the walking area?

It'd be great to have a 3d visualization where you can rotate the camera around.

I noticed that, too. I think the angles are such that it wouldn't be visible from this perspective. The steps are there. (Although I could swear there's another set of steps just across from the "Urbo" entrance. May have to take a detour down there tomorrow to satisfy my curiosity.)

The platform is there, just not quite visible because the upper floor is obstructing it. But you can see the bottom of the platform next to the accessible ramp.

The MTA has a similar 2D version of this on their website, divided into the "Neighborhood Maps," which are also posted in some stations[1, 2]. Apple maps has had this for the New York City Subway for a while[3], and Google is adding it but still doesn't have the entrances/exits like Apple Maps has (which are very helpful!)[4].

[1]: http://web.mta.info/maps/neighborhood_maps.htm

[2]: http://web.mta.info/maps/neighborhoods/mn/M12_MidtownEast-Gr...

[3]: https://i.imgur.com/nDsEOIP.png

[4]: https://i.imgur.com/Mc0WTAc.png

As a sidepoint:

You know what's annoying? When sites implement views that capture all your input on mobile, potentially trapping you and preventing scrolling away from them. This site is a good example of this.

It's fairly annoying on desktop too... scroll, scroll, scroll, oh great, I'm stuck.

I know what's annoying - these maps are made using Z-rays, not X like claimed by the title. /s

Honestly, I am initially thrown causing me frustration, and do recover, when my mind is required to switch between technical and aesthetic descriptives.

Not even close to being that good, but parts of the Frankfurt Metro have basic station maps on the platforms.

Of-Marktplatz: https://dl2.pushbulletusercontent.com/lxmCMsRFcz6eOy53QqHHzk...

Of-Kaiserlei: https://dl2.pushbulletusercontent.com/BEJXV2Cp8UDZ1dbbXVRPZe...

There are similar maps for complicated tram intersections in Dresden: https://www.dvb.de/-/media/files/liniennetz/%C3%BCb_hst_hbf_... (all at https://www.dvb.de/de-de/liniennetz/haltestellenumgebungspla... )

Berlin got these simple maps printed out for every station: http://www.bvg.de/de/standortplan/9003201

They can be found on the map icon on the left below the city map if you searched for any station over here: http://fahrinfo.bvg.de/Fahrinfo/bin/stboard.bin/en

I've been interested in generating reasonably accurate 3D models of NYC subway stations for awhile. It always bothered me that routing stops the second you descend into the station. If anything, that is where you need it most because some of the stations are confusing and the signage varies in helpfulness. Visitors often do not even know what side of the platform to stand on.

I went so far as to purchase a Project Tango[1] tablet several years back. I was trying to automate some of the mapping work using SLAM[2] but did not get very far before real life took over. I would be very interested in picking this project back up, especially with the recent developments in AR/VR. If you are interested in helping out, please reach out. Email is in my profile.

[1]: https://get.google.com/tango/ [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simultaneous_localization_and_...

Some other train stations that would be interesting to see:

- Atlantic Ave Pacific Street station (Most number of connections in the entire system)

- South ferry old and new stations (some of the sharpest rail curves in the system right at the edge of the Hudson river)

- 191 St station (deepest in the city at 180 feet/ 50 m)

- Hudson yards (They had to build the 7 train below the Hudson yards construction and all the existing and new Amtrak rail to New Jersey.)

Canal Street is beautifully intricate as well. There are lots of barely-hidden abandoned platforms and tracks that would be cool to see.

"Atlantic Ave Pacific Street station (Most number of connections in the entire system)"

If you count the Port Authority and Times Square - 42nd St as one, then you've got the 1, 2, 3, A, C, E, N, Q, R, W, 7, and S trains. That's more, right?

You can also connect to Bryant Park/42 and get BDFM. That whole complex is definitely the most transfers.

How do you connect to Bryant Park - 42nd street from Times Square? I have always walked above ground.

Yeah, I don't think you can. Protip: if you toggle "transit" on Google or Apple maps, then it shows outlines of the stations.

However, there is this:

https://www.6sqft.com/video-go-inside-the-citys-longest-unde...

Queens Plaza/Queensboro Plaza would also be interesting imho.

My eye gets drawn to the tradeoffs made in drawing them. For instance, often things on the surface are inked behind things below (like the monument in Columbus circle) because the things below are "more important" but this does make decoding the scene harder.

Also the S line platform in the 24nd-TimeSq station is drawn in such a way that it is not so clear what it is, which bugs me because I see that platform as one of the distinctive things about that station.

There was a interesting book I had when I was a kid. Its was about all the underground infrastructure by David Macaulay.

Google books has some pages :

https://books.google.com/books?id=Lqav0No51cEC&pg=PA92&sourc...

Anyone aware of similar maps for Boston's T system? (as the oldest subway system in America, its stations have many quirks)

I'd love to see this one.

Interesting... although it seems obvious in hindsight, I hadn't really appreciated that the terrible internal layouts of these stations was dictated by the lines following specific avenues so exactly.

Since we're on the topic, anyone know where to find these kinds of individual station diagrams (2D or 3D) for Metrorail in DC? I haven't been able to turn up anything besides system maps.

These are beautiful! I would love to know more about the process she goes through when surveying these. They look quite accurate. Thanks for sharing.

These are beautifully rendered. I'd love to be able to interact with them as you would in sketchup.

I really like this! I wish I had more of the track visible. Possibly with layers.

Beautiful, but 14th street/Union square is missing the L line

It's the gray platform that intersects the middle of the 456 and the end of the NQRW

That's confusing. I wonder why it's rendered that way. (Though I feel kind of bad about complaining.)

Because the NYC Subway "color" of the L line is gray! It's logo is a gray circle with a white "L" in the middle in a sans-serif block font.

Yeah, though also the other two tunnels seem to be shown with much wider colored strips. The L looks here more like a walkway between them.

Love it! Fantastic!

They're beautiful. Would it kill you to use a sans-serif font so I could read it?

Oh my, you can't read text with serifs? That sounds like a horrible affliction!

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