There are a lot of ways to design a good subway map, but completely distorting the landscape usually isn't one of them. However, mapmaker Max Roberts thinks that there's two ways to go about it — even if his method isn't always logical: he's redesigned the New York City subway system to into a clean, colorful pattern of lines that run across a landmass that looks almost nothing like the boroughs you know. "Geographical purists will be after my blood," Roberts told Gothamist. The map aligns the city's subway routes around the curve of a circle. The aim isn't to help people recognize where they are, but to help them understand where the routes go.
Circular subway map reimagines New York as a colorful, geometric array
is The Verge’s executive editor. He has covered tech, policy, and online creators for over a decade.
“I don’t think that these maps are particularly easy to use,” Roberts told Gothamist, “But they force a city into an unprecedented level of organization.” Roberts is a doctor of psychology, but his interest has been in mapping and schematics for some time now. In some ways, his studies may align: the circular designs aim to provide an alternative diagram for a type of person who he believes will prefer neatness and order to geographic recognition. New York City is Roberts’ latest subway redesign, the ninth in a series that began last year with the London tube map. “Every large network should always issue two maps,” Roberts said. “You just can’t please all people with just one design.”
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