Let’s get one thing straight. I. Hate. Buses. Like I really hate having to take one and I rather walk than get on one and get car sick with the stop and go rhythm as it creeps a few inches with traffic congestion keeping it from speeding down the road.
Add to that that for whatever reason our MTA system thinks that there shouldn’t be some sort of fully integrated transit map so you’re always flipping back and forth between subway and bus maps trying to make heads or tail of it all.
Now, thanks to one man and similar frustrations behold the map that binds them all!
Anthony Denaro has created the Bullet Map, a unified map of all Metro Card access systems in NYC (minus PATH trains because, let’s face it, it’s Jersey).
Denaro writes, “This map is for every resident of NYC – from the Northern Bronx to Eastern Queens to Southern Staten Island. From 12th Ave to York Ave; from Waterside to Bayside; from Inwood to Inwood; from the beginning of the A train to the end of the Q88.This map shows you how to get past Jamaica Center, far beyond Pelham Bay, over yonder Flushing, away from Eltingville.”
“The Unified Bullet Map fills the gulfs between and beyond subway lines to show you every possible way,included with your MetroCard fare,to get you to your destination.”adds Denaro on his website.
His journey towards this gem began one evening as he was staring at a subway map and then the thoughts came to him one by one:
“The Subway Map. Much discussed, much stared at, much debated and much redesigned. It’s fun, for a certain type of a person, to look at it and to think of the alternatives.
Then the thought hit me: If I can transfer to the bus for free, why isn’t there a map that shows where to connect with buses?
Why does the system map only show subways?
Why bother showing LIRR stations, MetroNorth stations and all the ferry lines? Why are arterial roads, like Flatlands Av and the Cross Bronx Expwy, shown? Why is the Hugh Carey Tunnel and the Triboro Bridge shown? Why aren’t local buses, crosstown buses and the new fancy SBS buses shown? Could the whole bus system fit over a subway map, especially in the areas that aren’t served by the subway?
The whole system of buses and subways could fit on one map. It could work. Right?
And so I started out on a long slow journey to make one single map. This diagram would put together all NYC transit services that are included with an Unlimited MetroCard.
Millions of NYC residents live beyond a 15 minute walk to a subway station. Hundreds of thousands of people start their commute by boarding a bus and then transferring to the subway. This is a map for us.
One complex transit map, for one complex transit-reliant city.”
Although the map isn’t available beyond these bits and pieces he’s released or the entire map which isn’t hi-res, you can clearly see how it will make life simpler if and when he releases it or better yet, the MTA pays him and puts it out for the millions who use the system daily!
What do you think? Should the MTA adopt this map?
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