New York is getting a new subway map! It's the first redesign in more than a decade, and it mostly looks the same as the old map, but with new colors. Here are some of the big differences:

  • Manhattan will increase in size on the map by 30%.
  • Staten Island will shrink by half.
  • The "Service Guide," that laughable little spreadsheet in the corner cheerfully advertising lies about subway service, will be banished forever.
  • City Island, which was missing from a bunch of maps (maybe because the subway doesn't go there) will be back on the maps. And Fort Greene Park, too!
  • That mocking stretch of G train between Court Square and 71st Avenue is gone, along with the other service changes (R.I.P W train).
  • The colors will be different.

The main goal of the map is simplification, so that you can more easily see where the F train isn't going every weekend. There will be an even simpler version for subway interiors, but keep in mind: If you are a real New Yorker, you never, ever need to look at a subway map, and that one time you wound up in Ozone Park, you totally meant to go there.

[NYT]