![]() These included color choices, the typeface used for signage, and identification of train routes. The report included suggestions similar to the ones made by Salomon and D’Adamo. 1934) was a professor of Engineering at Hofstra University when he published his 1965 study Methods of Improved Subway Information. Lindsay, and in 1975 was named Transportation Commissioner of Westchester County. D’Adamo held positions in the MTA as well as the administration of New York City Mayor John V. D’Adamo transitioned from the legal field to his passion: transportation planning and improvement. 1931), a Brooklyn native, was practicing law when he entered - and won - a 1964 contest to improve New York City’s subway map. Salomon’s map was also the first New York subway map to be produced directly by the Transit Authority and not a third party. It was New York’s first subway map to use a Beckian grid (named for Harry Beck, the draftsman who standardized the London Underground map with 45 and 90 degree angles), which resulted in a clearer and more useful travel aid. Some of Salomon’s thinking was applied to a system map, first issued in 1958 and used well into the 1960s. Official New York City Map and Guide, 1958, 2004.19.65 New York Transit Museum Collection. He offered steps to make this unified system easier to comprehend for city natives and tourists alike.Įxcerpts from Out of the Labyrinth, by George Salomon, 1956 – 57 New York Transit Museum Collection. It outlined several of the issues that had arisen from three transit companies - with three separate identities - merging to become one. George Salomon (1920 – 1981), a graphic designer, sent an unsolicited proposal, called Out of the Labyrinth, to the Transit Authority in 1957. George Salomon, 1957 Courtesy of Frank Salomon. The slow streamlining of passenger-facing information led to serious research into wayfinding and information delivery by the Transit Authority itself and inspired interested parties outside of the agency such as George Salomon, Stanley P. 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).
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