Second Ave. Sagas

On the MTA’s subway map SNAFU

Written by

Benjamin Kabak

in

,

Over the weekend, an embarrassing story concerning a subway map error hit the pages of The New York Post. Alexander Hamilton’s paper reported that the MTA had to throw away a bunch of subway maps when an error in the fare information section came to light. The March 2013 maps stated that the minimum purchase for a MetroCard is $4.50 when, in fact, it is now $5. Oops.

Now, according to The Post, TWU sources estimated the damage to be about $250,000. I spoke to officials at the MTA today to get their side, and they tell a slightly different story. I’ve learned that the MTA is estimating the damage at no more than $75,000, and the money will come out of subsequent map printings this year. As the MTA’s map budget is fixed, however much the agency burned on this error simply means fewer copies of subsequent map releases later in the year.

Meanwhile, even without this embarrassing mistake, the March maps were going to be chucked anyway. The MTA had printed them before the decision to recommission South Ferry had been announced, and the reopening will necessitate a new map next month anyway. It’s a sloppy, careless mistake that makes the MTA look bad in the pages of The Post, but it’s also ultimately a rounding error for an agency with a $13 billion budget. It’s not a real issue, but it just goes to show how public perception — rightly or wrongly — is shaped by press coverage of the MTA’s follies and foibles. The old maps will be given to an MTA licensee who uses them for subway-themed handbags or will wind up on eBay for subway map collectors to snatch up.

Comments

38 responses to “On the MTA’s subway map SNAFU”

  1. Matt

    I’m shocked — shocked, I tell you — to hear that the TWU put the worst possible spin on it, and that the NYP went with the scary number rather than digging into the details.

    Reply
    1. BrooklynBus

      That’s it. Blame the TWU and the Post for the MTA’s mistake. Maybe $250,000 is exaggerated, but we don’t know how accurate the MTA’s 75,000 figure is either. The question that needs to be asked is if it made more sense to discard the maps or put a sticker over the error if it was the only one. But since there is also the South Ferry “error”, they probably made the correct decision to scrap the maps.

      I just wonder if any large maps were also made for the subway stations that the MTA will also scrap and is just keeping silent on.

      Bottom line, it is not the first map error, nor will it be the last. Calling Liberty Avenue Bergen Street on the street base map remained on the map for over 35 years. In 1981, Customer Service gave me a box of misprinted subway maps where all the brown lines were omitted. So you had J and M stations but no J and M line. That is a much more serious error than a wrong fare. Perhaps the maps should not even have been recalled.

      Reply
      1. VLM

        If the MTA is the one actually footing the bill and they’re saying it’s a $75,000 mistake, why wouldn’t that be accurate? The TWU has no inside information here anyway. The only TWU members who deal with the map or the printing process are station agents who receive them to hand out. Non-union employees design them, and printing isn’t handled in house.

        Reply
        1. BrooklynBus

          Do you believe every MTA figure you read?

          If the TWU learns about a mistake in the handout maps and that cost $75,000 to fix when the mistake should have just been ignored because it is not important, but the MTA also ordered new replacement maps for stations and subway cars too that will also have to be discarded, do you think the MTA is dumb enough to voluntarily reveal that information and add it to the $75,000 figure for the handout maps that they can probably back up?

          How honest do you think the MTA is? When I worked there I remember a discussion with my boss (a very high level official) about personal security. He told me it wasn’t important if the passengers were actually safe or not. It only mattered that they thought they were safe.

          Reply
          1. VLM

            You have some terrible critical thinking skills, and you last worked at the MTA over a decade ago. As Ben reported, the MTA has a fixed budget for maps. So this mistake simply means fewer maps down the line this year. Whether it’s $250,000 worth of maps or $75,000 worth of maps, who cares? It’s a rounding error and it all comes out of the same budget. They’re not ordering more beyond what they’ve budgeted for this year.

            Anyway, you still haven’t answered my question: How is the TWU supposed to know a dollar figure? They have no view into the map-making process at all.

            Reply
            1. BrooklynBus

              There is nothing wrong with my thinking skills. I think just fine. Thank you.

              You have a problem sir, in unnecessarily insulting people for no reason at all and a reading problem too.

              Where did you get the impression that I was defending the TWU? I never said anything of the sort. I never said their $250,000 estimate was accurate.

              $75,000 is real money. It is not a rounding error. It may be a drop in the bucket, but it is real money. A bucket eventually gets filled up by adding drops.

              Too many at the MTA think like you that wasting $75,000 doesn’t matter. I guess that’s why my boss once ordered $3,000 of useless plaques that people didn’t even want to pick up, they cared so little about them. It was only a drop in the bucket he must have thought.

              I was taught that you should watch a bureaucracy’s money like you do your own which is what I did when I was employed by the MTA. When the toner in my printer was near empty, I shook it, rather than immediately replacing it and got several extra months of use out of it.

              If the MTA didn’t think of $75,000 as a “rounding error” as you do, perhaps they would be more careful about their funds and wouldn’t be in the financial situation they’re in. All these drops, add up.

              Answer me one question. If $75,000 is just a rounding error, why did they MTA reject a bus routing proposal I once made for the sole reason that it would increase operating costs by $50,000? It is a rounding error only when they want it to be a rounding error.

              Not that I think this $75,000 is a big deal. As I said, it is a drop in the bucket and if it were up to me, I wouldn’t have even recalled the map.

              And you didn’t answer my question that how do we know the MTA figure of $75,000 is even correct? Even if it only resulted in throwing out some printed maps, how do we know that station maps and subway car maps also weren’t printed that don’t reflect the opening of South Ferry and now will have to be discarded as well costing even more?

              We don’t. We only know about the $75,000 because the MTA was caught on this one.

              Reply
      2. Jerrold

        I agree with the last line of the above message. ANY map can become technically outdated the moment that something changes.
        I wonder if the MTA quickly withdrew those maps as a panic reaction whose real motive was to avoid embarrassment.

        Reply
        1. Jerrold

          CLARIFICATION:

          That “last line” that I agree with is this:

          “Perhaps the maps should not even have been recalled.”

          Reply
      3. Matt

        I’m not blaming the TWU and the Post for the MTA’s mistake. The MTA messed up the maps, and has to pay to fix them.

        I’m rolling my eyes at the TWU for getting the number so wildly, so predictably wrong. Yes, we know. You’re not happy with the MTA. You’re looking for any story you can find to embarrass them. So one of your members tells you about the screwed up maps, and you call the Post, because the only thing they like better than an article bashing the TWU is an article bashing the MTA.

        While I’m only rolling my eyes at the TWU, I annoyed at the Post, for apparently not bothering to research the article before running it. Perhaps I’m going out on a limb here, but surely it’s crossed their minds that maybe, just maybe, the TWU was using them to embarrass the MTA. Maybe, just maybe, the TWU was only passing along those tidbits of information that reflect negatively on the MTA. Would it really be too much to ask to have the reporter actually do some investigation?

        Reply
        1. SEAN

          Let me get something streight – you are expecting the NY Post to do an investagation on FACTS regarding the MTA? That’s like asking me to do brain sergery considering that I’m legally blind.

          Reply
      4. Sharon

        It would cost far more to put a sticker on them then it would to reprint.

        What I don’t understand is why the mta is not plastering these maps with advertising . It is a perfect spot and it would defer the cost of the printing.

        No thought of how to save money

        Reply
        1. BrooklynBus

          I’m sure they have thought of that. There is such limited space available on the subway map, that any ad means the removal of some needed information. I can see perhaps finding room for one ad or two on the back. But plastering the map with ads is out of the question.

          Reply
        2. Bolwerk

          Because the amount of gaudy advertising they already have isn’t enough for you?

          How about: the map already squeezes in an enormous amount of information about regional transit, quite well IMHO, and anything else squeezed there simply clutters a useful tool.

          Reply
  2. J. Benton Adams

    All the more reason to go digital. A couple simple mouse clicks…..problem solved. Why didn’t the MTA just recycle the maps I am pretty sure MTA could have recouped so the 75000 dollars.

    Reply
    1. BrooklynBus

      Don’t get your point. There will always be a need for paper maps, but probably fewer in the future as more people start relying on apps and smart phones.

      Reply
      1. Someone

        *MTA app fails, hordes of straphangers start roaming like confused rabbits*

        So, what now?

        Reply
        1. BrooklynBus

          There are plenty of non MTA pps available.

          Reply
    2. Someone

      A couple simple mouse clicks

      And a lot of training in making PDFs.

      Reply
      1. Bolwerk

        PDFs are as easy as printing. If you use Windoze, here is a free driver to print any document to PDF. Pretty sure Macs have that feature built in.

        Reply
  3. Chris C

    Perhaps in future they should leave info on fares OFF the map – I don’t think it is necessary to have this info on the map, if I wanted to know a fare then, as a visitor, I’d ask the station agent.

    Reply
    1. Benjamin Kabak

      There’s a lot of unnecessary information the MTA should leave off its maps. They’re not very good at design in that sense.

      Reply
      1. BrooklynBus

        But they removed the service guide which was important. Though I doubt if anyone in a subway car used it because of its placement on the bottom where you can’t read it.

        Reply
    2. Jerrold

      Consider how hard it is for us New Yorkers to find a station agent. Imagine being a tourist or a newcomer, and trying to find one. Are you thinking of the old days, when there was a “token guy” in every booth?

      Reply
      1. Chris C

        Well having visited your fair city a number of times I’d say the times I needed to talk to someone now are less and less but every time I have needed to ask something there was someone around !

        Reply
  4. Bolwerk

    I don’t really see the big deal. They give the maps away in booths. Use the erroneous ones for giveaways. Just put a sign on the booths explaining the errors. Printing cost: about two reams of paper, plus toner.

    Is there some reason they don’t sell the paper maps? They seem worth a dollar to me.

    Reply
    1. anon

      one would think now that anyone can download the maps for free from the MTA that they should start charging for maps.
      MAybe if they get all the stations wired for cellphones this would make more sense. Maybe let senior citizens get maps for free. Point to QR for map download for free… otherwise you can pay for hardcopy.

      Reply
      1. Bolwerk

        Maps are posted for free in stations as is. Tourists are practically the only people who might need them.

        Anyway, something with a mistake on it can still be useful.

        Reply
        1. Someone

          Not true, non-train buffs might need them because they’re so forgetful.

          Reply
          1. Bolwerk

            Um, anyone who uses the system regularly can figure it out from the maps posted in stations and the (more useful, methinks) signage.

            Reply
    2. Someone

      Even better: put Wite-Out on the errors, print the new fares, put them on the MetroCard machines themselves! Cost: about 200 bottles of Wite-Out, about 1 ream of paper, and about 4 ink cartridges.

      Reply
  5. anon

    did you check reddit today?
    Wageworks/MTA/Metrocard SNAFU
    http://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/co…..about_now/

    Reply
    1. anon

      and worth noting
      http://www.wageworks.com/about…..itChek.htm

      Reply
  6. anon

    how much would it cost to put a sticker over price with the correct price and have an intern do it?

    I’m guessing the 250,000 estimate is estimating $1 per map?
    250,000 maps down the drain?

    The 75,000 estimate is estimating 30 cents per map???

    does anyone know for sure how many maps were lost?

    Reply
    1. BrooklynBus

      It would not cost anything if there are people on the payroll who have idle periods. A sticker cost less than a penny. A better question is why does the map need to state the fare in the first place? And what’s the big deal if the information contains a small error? People don’t pick up a subway map to find out the fare. They use it for directions.

      Reply
      1. VLM

        If they have such idle periods, why are they on the payroll in the first place…?

        Reply
  7. Someone

    Yeah, yeah. Spend your fare hikes earnings on defective maps, why don’t you? Good job, MTA.

    Reply
  8. Alon Levy

    Number of orders of magnitude separating the high-end estimate from the MTA’s farebox deficit: 4.

    Reply
    1. Bolwerk

      Seems like a fair mistake to me. There are more fuckity things you can do with more money than most people pay in to the IRS in their entire lives.

      Reply

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