Platform to mezzanine staircases, such as this one, were especially crowded. “Unless there is a compelling reason, other than tradition, to perpetuate the present method of using only three colors to designate the various subway lines of this city, this method should no longer be followed.” – Raleigh D’Adamo, 1964 Lexington Ave–59 Street, 1968, 2005.48.285, NYCTA Photograph Unit Collection, New York Transit Museum.Īfter unification in 1940, the subway system was filled with layers of informational signage from various time periods and transit companies. “The subway system has now reached a point where only an expert can find his way around it.” – George Salomon, 1957 Although the subway system was unified in 1940, New Yorkers were still using the IRT/BMT/IND parlance well into the 1980s. Three 1948 station guides, one for each predecessor agency. Station Guides, 1948, XX.2014.6.11 New York Transit Museum Collection. One of the most important aspects of this new direction was reimagining the subway map. The authority hired Unimark International, who devised a set of standards for station signage as well as the way information was imparted to customers. The pace and challenges of subway unification had an instant and lingering impact on wayfinding information left over from the previous three-company era.Īlthough maps had depicted the unified system since 1940, the first cohesive effort to standardize the wayfinding and informational signage NYCTA inherited from numerous predecessor agencies began in 1966. Though they were officially one entity on paper, the physical integrations between the former IRT - today’s numbered lines - and the BMT and IND - today’s lettered lines - progressed slowly through the mid-1960s. In 1940, all three companies were unified under City control. New York’s subway system was originally three separate companies: the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Company (BMT), and the City-owned Independent Subway System (IND).
0 kommentar(er)
