Penn Station can’t move. But Madison Square Garden can. Is it time to move the iconic arena so the outdated, decaying, poorly organized center of the East Cost transportation universe can grow? That’s what Vin Cipolla and Robert Yaro argue in the New York Daily News, stating, “The tracks stop there, so Penn Station can’t move. But the Garden can.” The current MSG is the fourth iteration of the iconic athletic venue, and you’re more likely to board your Amtrak train first at Penn Station if you look at the arrivals board, not the departures board. (photo by Mike Albans/New York Daily News)
Ever wonder how street signs are made? Fortunately, NYCDOT made a video showing that process in action. (ht Government Executive)
The Subway Is Back (Sorta)
As of tomorrow, mass rail transit is kinda returning to New York City!
The upshot, basically, is:
- You can get from the Bronx to Upper Manhattan, and Upper Manhattan to the Bronx.
- You can get from Queens to Upper Manhattan, and Upper Manhattan to Queens.
- You can kinda get around Queens and the Bronx
- You can get east to west in north and central Brooklyn, and
- from central Brooklyn to parts of South Brooklyn, and vice versa.
- If you want to go between Brooklyn and Manhattan you can take one of three shuttle busses, running from, respectively, Atlantic Center, Jay Street and Hewes St. and all going to 57th and Lexington Ave.
Here is a map:
The slow crawl back to normalcy continues. Good luck, New Yorkers.
How the WMATA Rush+ Maps Are Printed
Many thanks to Matt Johnson for telling me about this amazing photoset on Flickr that details the process involved in printing the new Rush+ station maps for Washington, DC’s Metro system. Click through to see the whole set!
Even as an experienced graphic designer, I was amazed to see that the maps are screen printed - each colour on the map is printed one after the other, each using a separate screen with its own spot colour ink. With a map as complex as this, that means that there are a whopping twelve different colours to print! These being: river blue, park green, National Mall green, Blue Line, Orange Line, Yellow Line, Green Line, Red Line, Silver Line, District/County border grey, Beltway grey, and finally, black.
I would have thought with the advances in digital printing and stochastic (micro) screening, that these could be produced digitally in one step instead of twelve, but maybe these are special long-lasting UV inks that will withstand many years of use without fading - an important consideration for station maps! In any case, these photos are a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at a process that many people may not even think about.
EDIT: A tweet from a Metro representative confirms that there are THIRTEEN colours used in the printing: 4 greys (Silver Line, Beltway grey, county border grey, and icon grey), 3 greens (parks, Mall, Green Line), 2 Blues (river, Blue Line), Black, Red, Yellow and Orange.
OH MY GOD! I <3 <3 <3 this more than that time I met Bieber.
Dear fans of DC Metro maps: Here’s how they make them. Wow. Awesome.
Right away, over 4,000 workers would be furloughed without pay. If it’s delayed for just 10 days, we will lose nearly $1 billion in highway funding that we can never get back. And if we wait even longer, almost 1 million workers could be in danger of losing their jobs over the next year.President Barack Obama • Speaking in his weekly radio address about the importance of passing the Surface Transportation Bill — a bill that funds the construction of highways, bridges and so on — before the end of the month. If not, he claims it could cost thousands of jobs, if not more. The AFL-CIO and Chamber of Commerce —a.k.a. unions and big businesses — both support the bill. But Republicans, of course, take issue with the way Obama is framing the debate. Sigh. JUST WORK, GOVERNMENT! source (via • follow)
New Jersey’s governor just gave public works projects a body blow today. Why, you ask? Well, Chris Christie, frustrated over the possibility of putting taxpayers on the hook for billions in cost overruns, ordered the shutdown of a massive, long-in-the-works plan to build a passenger rail tunnel under the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York City. While his reasons are fiscal conservative to the core, let’s just emphasize a few things about what he’s costing his state by shutting down the largest public works project in the country:
» And lots of people are pissed, too. Even considering the costs of this project (which had bipartisan support, by the way), the potential benefits could’ve been long-term and might’ve paid for themselves. Homeowners lost out on higher home prices. Commuters lost the possibility of less-annoying commutes. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood sounded like he wanted to shout in Chris Christie’s face so loudly it ripped the governor’s skin off. And Christie, while bolstering his support among the right, could hurt his re-election chances because of the perceived flip-flop. This is dangerous ground no matter the fiscal benefits.
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