Over the last few months, the Department of Transportation has engaged in a series of initiatives to make New York City’s streets more pedestrian- and biker-friendly. They’ve put in a nifty bike lane on Ninth Ave. and are currently spearheading a much-needed renovation of the Grand Army Plaza disaster. But I have to wonder if their latest initiative — directional compasses on the sidewalks at the top of four subway station exits — might just be overkill.
Here’s the story: Last year, a 71-year-old New York native who has somehow never been able to figure out his way around the easy grid of Manhattan suggested in this piece in The Times that every subway staircase be equipped with a directional compass. These compasses ideally would point the way to the nearest avenues and give emerging straphangers an idea of north-south-east-west (or at least as the cardinal directions apply to Manhattan). So DOT decided to give it a go. No longer would New Yorkers be bombarded by lost folks wanting to know which way Eighth Avenue is.
James Barron of The Times has more in this story:
Now the city is experimenting with a new way to help people go where they want to go without wasting more steps than they have to. The city and the private business improvement district for the neighborhood around Grand Central Terminal have installed compass-shaped decals on sidewalks, right where riders emerge from heavily used subway stairwells.
The gold-on-black decals are 24 inches in diameter, larger than a large pizza but smaller than a manhole cover. They carry two kinds of information: directions for north, east, south and west, and the names of the nearest streets.
The four test pilots in this program went up — or is that down? — yesterday. One sits on 42nd St. between Lexington and Third Aves.; one on Lex between 42nd and 43rd; one on 51st between Lex and Park; and one on 53rd between Madison and Park. But I have to wonder if these are really necessary.
Nitpickingly, the compasses are mislabeled. In the minds of New Yorkers, uptown in Manhattan is north and the Hudson River is always to the west. But in reality — if you include, you know, the rest of the world — uptown is northeast and, while you would reach the Hudson River by heading due west, numbered streets are at northwest-southeast bent instead of a true east-west alignment. Small beans, I know. But it’s a little wrong.
But more on my mind is the question posed by Cityroom: “Was this really a pressing problem in need of a solution? Much of the city is on a grid, after all — even Queens addresses follow a certain logic.” Brad Allen at Streetsblog admits to being directionally-challenged, but the worst that happens in this city is that someone ends up one block in the wrong direction. And now with these compasses right at the top of subway entrances, confused tourists will stop in the worst possible place: at the top of a crowded staircase. I can’t wait.
If you live in New York, you should know which avenues run uptown and downtown. You should know which streets run toward the Hudson (odds) and which ones run toward the East River (evens). I can see a need for these signs in the odd nooks and crannies of Lower Manhattan, Chinatown and the Village, but it’s nearly impossible to get lost in Midtown. Now, we have ugly giant compasses marring the sidewalk. It seems that DOT is trying to solve a problem that just isn’t that bad.
While I might be too harsh on this compasses, I’m not alone. Anna Medina, quoted in Barron’s Times article, summed it up nicely. “Personally, I wouldn’t use it because I’m from New York and I know where I’m going,” she said. “When you’re from New York, everyone knows where you’re going.”
15 comments
AAAaaaand we are supposed to believe that they can mount these things facing in the correct direction after the debacle with the public hearing signs?
While I agree that New York is generally easy to navigate, as a visitor to the city (who loves the subway system and is considering moving to New York), it can be confusing when exiting from a subway station trying to figure out which way is which (and in some cases which street you are actually on).
There are probably better mounting positions/locations, and potentially different looks, but from my perspective it’s a great idea, at least conceptually, although not at significant expense or time to the city, but if it could be done cooperatively with the right groups, the cost/time aspect could be kept to a minimum.
I havent skittrered out to see the new decals yet. Are they really aligned with the street grid and not with actual Due North? One COULD chalk it up to the usual Manhattnocentric view of the Universe. Of course the big terrazzo compass installed as part of the conversion of Grand Central Terminal to a shopping mall also included a mis-aligned compass on the floor of the Lower Level.
I believe the stairtop directional compass idea was considered some time ago by NYCT and rejected because it was felt that confused and indecisive individuals would end up standing around at the top of the street stairs, trying to decipher the compass, ignorant of the throngs endeavoring to get to or from their train, while they debated whether Bloomingdale’s was north or south, and should’nt they go to H&M first and why don’t they call Cheryl to see what’s on sale at Macy’s.
– Oh, re: Post # 1 from SubwayBlogger:
Unless you have a reallly low threshold, one picture of one Public Hearing sign posted sideways scarcely consititutes a debacle.
I strongly disagree, Ben. This is a great idea, and it was a great idea ever since I first saw it suggested in the Times in January 2006. The problem isn’t knowing how the streets run, the problem is getting out of the twisty-turny subway tunnels and being totally disoriented. This happens to me pretty frequently if I ride a line I don’t usually ride.
Kudos to JS-K…
Lots of the city (the parts I’m least familiar with, truth be told) are not on a grid. Plus, if you get out on a corner and it simply says 50th & 8th or whatever, who is to say which way I walk if I want to get to 47th and 12th? I can’t always see the next street’s signs from where I am standing. Sure, I could have the direction of all avenues and streets memorized but after 16 years in the city and a childhood in the burbs with frequent visits, I still don’t. I know the exact order of the avenues but that seldom helps me when I get out of the subway and am standing at a corner where all I can see is three banks, Ray’s Pizza and Starbucks. I adore this idea.
I’m with you Ben on the idea that tourists will just plop their bodies over the decals blocking the subway exits, and being technical about what is actually North. If the signs continue as is with North being labeled wrongly, I will be irked each and every time I see the misinformation.
As for the signs being placed wrongly, it does happen often in NYC, fairly often. The 23rd Ely station has a large exit closed off that normally exits onto 44th Drive. This complete close is due to escalator repair, and the multiple signs to detour people to 44th Drive go in complete opposite directions.
Hi, I have to disagree with you on this one, Ben. I’ve been in the city for over two years, and it’s still pretty frustrating when I get out of a subway stop and don’t know which way to turn. I’ve gone the wrong way for more than a couple blocks at times, not having memorized the order of all the avenues. Maybe it’s not so tough for some people who have, but in a city of millions, including many tourists, I’d welcome this as a design improvement to the city’s streets.
Also, I doubt people will spend too long puzzling over the four words on each compass. And think how it could improve sidewalk congestion by getting people where they’re going more quickly!
Finally, it’s silly to complain about the compasses being “misaligned”. People are trying to get to somewhere in Manhattan a few blocks away (in one of the compass’s directions), not to the North Pole! It would make no sense to confuse people by making the compasses geographically accurate.
Ben, you brought up every thought that popped into my head when I heard about this earlier this morning. Is it really so hard to turn around and walk the other way if you realize the numbers are going up when you want them to go down? (Not to mention, the twisty-turney tunnels that Harlan mentions are almost always labeled “NE corner” or “SW corner” etc. when you exit.) AND it would drive me crazy (as a nerd) that it would be a Manhattan-oriented compass, not a true NSEW compass. MTA, please save the money and effort for projects that really matter.
Even for natives, there are four hundred something stops in the system. Do you know where you are going at each one? Responding to the notion that this is a minor problem that may not be worthy or fixing, all they are doing is printing stickers. It doesn’t cost a lot and makes things just a bit easier. The only problem I see is putting the decals at the top of the stairs. Most subway stairs are only a few feet wide. It only takes one old person with a cane to drive people on their way to work a bit nuts. Imagine all the tourists meandering up the steps at a leisurely pace only to stop at the top and slow everything down that much more. They should put a few of them around the entrance no less that 10 feet away from the top of the stairs.
AlexB: I think you’re misinterpreting my comments. I don’t mind the idea of the compass, and as you point out, no one knows at every single one of the 468 stops which way to go. But I don’t think these stops on the grid in Midtown are the best places to test top-of-the-staircase compasses. Why not try them out in the more confusing areas of Lower Manhattan? I, for one, always get confused trying to navigate away from the Fulton St. station aboveground. I think that’s a much better idea that sticking a compass on the ground at Lexington and 42nd St., possibly the hardest place in the city at which one could be lost.
I think this is a great idea – especially for tourists.
I live right down the block from the Lexington Avenue Subway stop at 77th Street and not a single week goes by where I assist tourists who are totally disoriented and are asking which way they should be walking in order to get to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I mean, we’re talking “deer caught in the headlights” disoriented here! They pull out their Maps, their Tour Guide Books, they crane their necks to look for Street signs – and all of this usually happens on the Uptown Side (not the “True North” side) – of Lexington Avenue, where they do succeed in creating “Pedestrian Traffic Jams” on the sidewalk.
So, if the DOT – or some NYC Tourism Division or Group (NYC Inc.?) are loking for a “Test” location of their “Decals” in a residential neighborhood that could benefit tourists – I’ll nominate the NE & SE Corners of 77th & Lexington Avenue.
BTW – If these decals are deemed “successful”, maybe they should consider something more permanent in the more heavily trafficed locations – like the bronze medallions that commemorate Fashion Designers on the “Fashion Walk of Fame” on 7th Avenue.
I think Ben misapprehends the potential for confusion, even in a neighborhood where all the streets and avenues are numbered. Say you’re going to Fifth Avenue & 23rd Street, but you get out on Sixth Avenue & 23rd Street. If you’re not used to it, it’s a bit of a hike before you figure out that you mistakenly headed towards Seventh, instead of Fifth.
Those of us who do it all the time know that there are ways of figuring this out, but they aren’t obvious to the visitor, and even natives can get confused in a part of town they don’t often visit.
Sorry i have to agree with Alex B and the rest, I’ve been living here for 25 years, riding the Lex and South Broadway line for about 11 and I still get disoriented at corners like 68th, 53rd and 33rd and Lex. And I agree that it should be tested in Lower Manhattan just as much.
I love them and I honestly don’t think they should be accurate. They should line up with the subway maps (also inaccurate and not to scale) and keep things as simple as possible.
As for them not being needed, lower Manhattan is a mess of jumbled streets. Even I could use one of those sometimes (especially when drinking!)