{"id":36166,"date":"2020-10-20T18:11:10","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T22:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\/statescoop\/?p=36166"},"modified":"2021-09-03T13:52:20","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T17:52:20","slug":"mta-nyc-first-interactive-digital-subway-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\/statescoop\/mta-nyc-first-interactive-digital-subway-map\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC debuts ‘first’ digital subway map of its kind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Officials from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said an interactive, digital map of the New York City subway system published by the agency on Tuesday is a first of its kind for North America \u2014 and potentially the world.<\/p>\n

The map<\/a>, available on the MTA\u2019s website for both desktop and mobile users, streams near-real-time views of train locations, construction and delays to a virtual diagram of the train system. Users can zoom in and out on tracks to see which direction trains are heading and click on stations to check service status, as well as re-routing updates for nighttime and weekend service.<\/p>\n

The project is a testament to upgrades in data-sharing technology, MTA deputy communications director Kevin Call said. Previously, the MTA wasn\u2019t able to collect and share data in real-time, nor overlay single-line route maps with more detailed track diagrams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe technology and tools simply didn\u2019t exist a few years ago. This is something that really wasn\u2019t possible for smartphones and digital mapping techniques, to allow one map to sort of transform in the way that this map does to show multiple elements,\u201d Call said.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Trains are visible moving through the map in real time. (MTA)<\/p><\/div>\n

New York City was once home to a \u201cGreat Debate<\/a>\u201d about how to design its subway map. In 1978, an aesthetically pleasing map of the subway system was conceived by Italian Modernist Massimo Vignelli and a more topographical, clean version by Michael Hertz Associates, a New York graphic design firm. The Hertz-designed map is the one New Yorkers use today, but the technology behind Tuesday\u2019s digital map is the MTA\u2019s first attempt at \u201cmarrying these two concepts so they work together,\u201d Call said.<\/p>\n

The system is built on APIs that track the locations of different trains, and feed the data into the back-end of the digital map. But a challenge that arose during development was that there\u2019s no such thing as train \u201clines\u201d in transit data, said Joshua Gee, the director of digital customer experience for the MTA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are hundreds of trains that we label “4 train,\u201d Gee said. \u201cMost of those trains make the same stops, but a lot of them don’t! Especially during reroutes or incidents! So we had to create an API that laid all the trips on top of each other and calculated a canonical list of stops that can define the “4 train”.<\/p>\n

As a user zooms in, the map becomes more detailed, and straight and angled subway lines from a zoomed-out perspective gradually curve to represent more geographically accurate train routes. The curves forced Gee and his team to develop software to solve a “very, very hard mathematical problem,” he said, to draw lines that curved elegantly together. While zoomed in, users can also watch opaque gray trains move around the map as they\u2019re moving in real life, something that will become more accurate as the project moves out its beta phase.<\/p>\n

The digital map is more necessary than ever before because of the coronavirus pandemic, Call said, but the MTA was able to benefit from pro-bono work done by the design firm Work & Co. The map\u2019s creation has even inspired a short film<\/a>, called \u201cThe Map,\u201d that the design firm produced with independent filmmaker Gary Hustwit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The technology to show users the locations and directions of trains in near real time on their mobile devices wasn’t available a few years ago, said the MTA’s Kevin Call.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":36169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":false,"display_author_bio":true,"story_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[4676,20648],"tags":[310,1508,3018,13703],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[4698],"class_list":["post-36166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city","category-digital-services","tag-new-york-city","tag-metropolitan-transportation-authority","tag-mta","tag-digital-services","author-ryan-johnston"],"yoast_head":"\nNYC debuts 'first' digital subway map of its kind | StateScoop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\/statescoop\/mta-nyc-first-interactive-digital-subway-map\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NYC debuts 'first' digital subway map of its kind | StateScoop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The technology to show users the locations and directions of trains in near real time on their mobile devices wasn't available a few years ago, said the MTA's Kevin Call.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\/statescoop\/mta-nyc-first-interactive-digital-subway-map\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"StateScoop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StateScoop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-20T22:11:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-09-03T17:52:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\/statescoop\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/10\/Mobile_Responsive_Zooms.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ryan Johnston\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@RCJ__96\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@State_Scoop\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\\\/statescoop\\\/mta-nyc-first-interactive-digital-subway-map\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\\\/statescoop\\\/mta-nyc-first-interactive-digital-subway-map\\\/\",\"name\":\"NYC debuts 'first' digital subway map of its kind | StateScoop\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\\\/statescoop\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\\\/statescoop\\\/mta-nyc-first-interactive-digital-subway-map\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\\\/statescoop\\\/mta-nyc-first-interactive-digital-subway-map\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\\\/statescoop\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/6\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/Mobile_Responsive_Zooms.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-20T22:11:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-09-03T17:52:20+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\\\/statescoop\\\/mta-nyc-first-interactive-digital-subway-map\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\\\/statescoop\\\/mta-nyc-first-interactive-digital-subway-map\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\\\/statescoop\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/6\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/Mobile_Responsive_Zooms.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scoopmedia-develop.go-vip.net\\\/statescoop\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/6\\\/2020\\\/10\\\/Mobile_Responsive_Zooms.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"The new digital map on a desktop and mobile platform. 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