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A live map also reflects all the current changes the subway is underway, such as maintenance, closed stations, etc… Of course people managed to go use the subway for decades using this old map, what they're trying to do is improve on things. I for sure would like to see that kind of tech used for other subways in the world.

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Most other subways will just stop services on a segment and use buses to fill the gap.

New York is rather unique in that the subway was engineered, or rather over-engineered, to be able to reroute trains. (E.g. This E train will be making local stops in Queens and running over the M line to West 4th St.

I mean the MTA does that too

The N/Q into Astoria, the F line in Downtown Brooklyn

What I mean to say is that the level of changes the map needs to reflect is pretty much only useful to New York, since they are the only system consistently rerouting trains rather than stopping segments entirely.

Yeah, I’m not denigrating the live map. It’s great, and while it seems it’ll be a while until I can test it out in real time (thanks, COVID), the design looks fantastic to me.

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