New York Daily Photo Analytics

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Train of Thought


New Yorkers can become obsessed in the minutiae of this city. Where and why else would you find a nine-page article on the typeface used in subway: "The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway" (see story here)? The use of Helvetica is now the official typeface for the New York Subway system, but only recently. In 1966, the subway's design group, Unimark International, headed by Milanese graphic designer Massimo Vignelli, originally chose Standard (aka Akzidenz Grotesk) as the official typeface. Helvetica later crept into the system for technical reasons.

To any curious individual riding a New York City subway, it does not take much time at all before they will begin to wonder about the letter and number designations for the numerous lines. Are they all used? Which are, which are not and why?

As one might expect, many have gone into great depth of study over these questions. However, I was shocked to learn that every letter and number in use in the NYC subway system has its own individual Wikipedia page. A separate page discusses unused New York City subway service labels. Currently, 17 letters of the alphabet are being used and nine letters are not in use: H I K O P T U X Y.

How technical or nerdy do you want to be? By making a distinction that some of the unused letters do appear on the flipdots/rollsigns of the R32/R38 subway cars or the side signs of the R44/R46 cars (they may not be officially used, but could be displayed and may occasionally be by accident)?

Recently on a trip back from Brooklyn, in a fortuitous moment, I saw the F and G trains pass by (albeit in reverse alphabetical sequence). So I have begun to wonder, what is the longest string of trains one could see in alphabetical sequence without riding?
The West 4th Street station services the A, B, C, D, E, and F. One could, with a fair amount of stair sprinting, see and photograph all six trains in letter sequence. Or try to ride all the New York City trains in letter and/or number sequence. A noble mission for Sesame Street, perhaps, but my ride on this train of thought ends with the F and G :)

4 comments:

Jose Ramon Santana Vazquez said...

...traigo
sangre
de
la
tarde
herida
en
la
mano
y
una
vela
de
mi
corazón
para
invitarte
y
darte
este
alma
que
viene
para
compartir
contigo
tu
bello
blog
con
un
ramillete
de
oro
y
claveles
dentro...


desde mis
HORAS ROTAS
Y AULA DE PAZ


TE SIGO TU BLOG




CON saludos de la luna al
reflejarse en el mar de la
poesía...


AFECTUOSAMENTE
BRIAN

ESPERO SEAN DE VUESTRO AGRADO EL POST POETIZADO DE BLADE RUNNER, CHOCOLATE, EL NAZARENO- LOVE STORY,- Y- CABALLO,

José
ramón...

Kenon Thompson said...

I have a question Brian. I have seen read/seen somewhere (don't remember, sorry) but its pretty much useless to have a car in NYC. Do you find that true?

Brian Dubé said...

Kenon - This is like anything else - there is good and bad. First of all, I have had a car for decades, mostly to get out of the city. And within the city, it is useful for exploring during off hours. Certainly public transportation is efficient and extensive, but you can only really cover large areas in detail with some sort of vehicle, bicycle included (which I also own). There are also areas which are very difficult to access via train or bus. In general though, a car is a huge luxury and of limited use. Most times within the city, I use public transportation.

Carol said...

I find the Helvetica font cute. I use it on quite a number of my documents. I wouldn't wonder if they'd use it too.