hyperreal cartography & the unrealized city

In my efforts to build community support for the QueensLink, I find myself talking to people about extending the M train. Since the M loops back into Queens, some folks thought that we were planning on extending it from its Middle Village end, not from Queens Blvd. Once people realize this, the inevitable next question I get is, “Why doesn’t the M train loop up to Roosevelt Ave to make a…

Last year I was fortunate enough to work on a wayfinding pilot for WMATA, the Washington DC Metro. They were looking at ways to make their signs and maps more user-friendly. Philadelphia just so happened to be doing the same thing, so we used SEPTA as a reference. While putting together resources for my forthcoming Philadelphia Track Map (“it will be done when it’s done”), I spent more time…

Recently, the Mayor of Atlanta announced that the city would be investing in four new MARTA infill stations. MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) is one of the typical hybrid metro systems that were built after World War II. MARTA, like WMATA in Washington DC, and BART in the San Francisco Bay Area were designed as a response to urban freeways that had devastated older cities and…

MTA Program for Action 1969 A year ago, I did a deep dive into the MTA’s Program for Action, the ambitious expansion plans they rolled out after their founding in 1968. Since then, I’ve had a number of people reach out to me asking about this particular map. The unfortunate truth is that I don’t really know where this map came from. It’s on the Wikipedia page for the Program for Action, and I…

Sam Sklar is an urban planner and writer based in NYC. He has some pretty impressive interviews on his substack, Exasperated Infrastructures, which I recommend checking out. I sat down with Sam a couple of times over the last two years, and he’s been nice enough to finally publish them. Give it a read and support Sam’s work. Vanshnookenraggen on the past, present, and future of transportation.

Evan Applegate has probably the best podcast on cartography going. I was fortunate enough to site down with Evan and talk about my work. New York City cartographer and chief design officer on using library archives, train-mounted GoPro footage and his own two feet to plot every track in the New York City subway system, a brush with cubicle-based urban planning at the Port Authority,…

I hadn’t intended on revisiting the Southeast Queens Line after my two part series. But in researching Jamaica transit, I found myself down a rabbit hole looking at the IND plans in Jamaica. This post is therefore a prequil to those posts. Subway service first reached Jamaica in 1918. Previously, Jamaica had only been served by the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) and, later, streetcars. There had…

Image of Queensboro Plaza, twice as large as it is today, before unification. Undated. Image of Queensboro Plaza, twice as large as it is today, before unification. Undated. Image of Queensboro Plaza, twice as large as it is today, before unification. Undated. The New York City subway is famously made up of three formerly private railroads; three distinct networks that were planned to be…

Readers of my blog might remember the Tech Transit Assn. as the group of Brooklyn Tech students who I co-wrote the post on Regional Rail and Extending the 7 Train. They were nice enough to ask me on their podcast to discuss transit issues and the QueensLink. It’s definitely a long one, so enjoy!

1939 IND Second System Map Students of NYC subway history know this map. It is one of the two official maps for the IND Second System plans from 1939. The original, 1929 plan, was published in the New York Times, but this second map’s origin were more unclear. The map in question comes from a technical report, “Report on Power Supply of the New York City Transit System” by the J. G. White…

When Duke Ellington wrote “Take the A Train” he wasn’t talking about Brooklyn. Today, the A train runs from Washington Heights at the upper tip of Manhattan, to southern Queens and the Rockaway peninsula. It is, in fact, the longest subway line in the city (especially when it runs local late at night.) But while the A in Manhattan is a venerable workhorse, once it reaches Brooklyn, things…