Event: Vignelli on Vignelli at the Transit Museum

I have always found the Tauranac subway map, introduced in 1979 and used in modified form today, more user-friendly, understandable and plain better-looking than the over-stylized Vignelli map.

I’m glad the wordpress subwayweekender site uses the Tauranac

http://subwayweekender.wordpress.com/

instead of the MTA Vignelli weekender, which uses a confusing array of blinking icons.

http://www.mta.info/news/stories/?story=384

I suppose, like spinach, the Vignelli stuff is pushed at us because, it’s, well, good for us.

When it comes to maps, the simpler the instructions, the better, and while Vignell’s lines that allow for only 45- or 90-degree angles seems like simplicity itself, the idea originally by the MTA that his map would be one of three riders would use to navigate the system and match the abstract NYC subway system with the real world above (or below) it was, in hindsight, inane.

That’s why the 1979 and onward maps have been more successful. While the lines may not be as elegantly laid down as on Vignelli’s map, it does a better job of immediately matching the subway system to its actual location, even if a few exceptions have to be made in Manhattan to get a wide amount of graphics onto a narrow borough. It will be interesting to see if that conundrum gets covered on Wednesday.