Man who Oversaw Subway Map Redesign 50 Years Ago is Pushing a New Version

The subway map that John Tuaranac oversaw more than 50 years ago and which is still in use today is referred to as the Tuaranac map; the previous edition by Italian designer Massimo Vignelli in 1972, had taken geographical accuracy away by reinterpreting New York’s tangled labyrinth of subway lines as a neat diagram. This soon became embroiled in controversy—city parks were brown, bodies of water were grey. It was easier to read than previous maps but seemed more diagrammatic than user friendly. After several years of public complaints, the MTA appointed a 12-member committee to come up with a more user-friendly alternative. The original chairman of the committee resigned and John Tauranac was assigned as its new chair. The Committee worked with Transit Authority staff and three members of the design firm Michael Hertz Associates. The next two years saw evolution of the map we use today, almost scuttled then rescued. Tuaranac’s chairmanship, after the first head left, steered the committee to create what is now the current subway map that was unveiled way back in 1979.

Tauranac, now in his 80s, thinks his private 2024 iteration is a vast improvement, even if the MTA does not embrace it.

Tauranac recently sat down with Straus News for an exclusive chat about his newest effort, a poster-sized reimagining of the current NYC subway map. He is an author, academician, tour guide, and lecturer. With degrees from Columbia and NYU, a lifelong New Yorker, he is well suited for his cartographic insights.

When you were young, did you collect maps?

When I was growing up, there were National Geographic maps on my wall at home. When Jimmy Doolittle got lost on his raid to Tokyo, one of the crew members on his B-25 had one of their maps, and that’s what got them there. That made a big impression on me.

What were the subways like to you when you were growing up in the 1950s?

In a word, frustrating. I was a (Brooklyn) Dodgers fan, but, I never went to one of their games. Because we lived in Manhattan, I couldn’t understand the BMT lines in Brooklyn, and never attended a game at Ebbets Field. I did get to both Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds to see the New York Giants play baseball.

You are a graduate from two prestigious universities in Manhattan. what did you expect to do with your life?

After a brief period of trying to figure out what to do with my life, I found the General Studies program at Columbia and graduated, with honors, in 1963. During that time, I also had a part time job as well I wanted to be a successful writer, not someone living in a garret.

After graduating NYU in 1966 with a Masters in American Urban History, I ended up briefly in Advertising, then waited on tables at the Promenade Cafe in Rockefeller Center. In the early 1970s, I started working for the Municipal Arts Society, where I did some projects for the MTA.

Living in the City, my thirst for its vast, rich history, drove me to focus on it, writing freelance articles. One of my first pieces, about restaurants that offered a no smoking section was right up my alley. My last cigarette smoked was in 1963.

As a child living in Manhattan, I discovered all sorts of underground passageways, seemingly hidden from view from most shoppers and commuters. My knowledge of them translated into New York magazine articles about them with maps for Midtown and then Downtown in the early 1970s.

How would you describe your work with the Map Committee?

The MTA originally wanted a guidebook to the city, and then wanted the equivalent of my underground maps for subway lines, which had changed radically with the Chrystie Street Connection in the 1960s, which merged several subway lines from the former subway companies [into the NYC Transit system].

After my guidebook was published in 1976. I was asked to be on the MTA Map Committee. It’s supervisor at the time resigned, and it was now my responsibility.

How long did your committee actually exist?

From 1976 to June 1979, after the new subway map was published.

What were the joys?

I would take a bath at home, I called it a think tank. During them, there were times when simple decisions of intramodality or connections would take a lot of thinking. I was always working on subway map, even though the committee met once a month. Within the Michael Hertz group, we were lucky enough to have sculptor and painter Nobuyuki “Nobu” Siraisi on our Committee. Nobu was the person who made the map. Of course, this being NYC, there was outside controversy. In April of 1978, there was a debate between Massimo Vignelli and myself. I’m a New Yorker, he wasn’t. He was Bauhaus, I’m Beaux Arts.

What encouraged you to revise the map for poster publication in 2024?

Ever since the Committee was disbanded 45 years ago, I was always thinking about how to make it better. My wife inspired me to actually do that—the first revision was in 1991.

Why a new map now?

I believe that New Yorkers and out-of-towners deserve a better subway map. In the naming of stations, street names are given priority over secondary names and neighborhood names, which makes especially good sense for terminals. Manhattan is considerably expanded on its east-west axis from about Houston Street to about 145th Street, for instance. Consequently, the Harlem River is hardly as wide as depicted, nor is Central Park the runty rectangle. It is really about 2.5 times as long as it is wide. There are the wheelchair symbols for accessibility, and “No U-Turn” symbols to flag stations where passengers cannot transfer to a train going in an opposite direction without paying another fare. These are just some examples as to how the map differs from the official one. Subway stations that accommodate transit police stations are indicated by police badges. Two-fifths of the system’s stations – 194 of the 472, by my count – are above ground, they are indicated on the map by a sun symbol.

When asked, MTA spokesperson Laura Cala-Rauch declined comment on this story.

The 24-inch by 36-inch poster retails for $14.95. Copies are currently available from the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, Jack’s Art Gallery at 2855 Broadway and The Red Caboose at 23 West 45th Street.

For further information, please contact johntauranac@gmail.com.