I find the subway map confusing. Also, when I ask for a map at the booth they hand me some huge *** map that I gotta unfold on the train and I look like a n00b tourist. Aren t there smaller maps available?Are transfers easy to make?Are there any lines that people generally avoid (because of muggings, etc.)?
There are small maps available, but you have to purchase them. Most newsstands, including those on subway platforms, have them as do bookstores, etc.Lost of people use sites like hopstop.com to figure out the route, and the official site at mta.info also has both a map and a system where you can put your start point and destination to find a route.Maps are posted on subway platforms (though some are missing or damaged) and in subway cars. Even New Yorkers who ride regularly consult them from time to time. If you do use the big map you get at the stations, fold it small to the point that only the section you need is showing and you;ll look like you know what you re doing.Most transfers are very easy to make if they are actual in-system transfers. There ll be signs available on the platform when you exit your first train that will point you in the right direction. At some points you ll find out-of-system transfers that require you to exit one station and enter another. There again there will be signs to point you to the right exit but once you re outside finding the other station is sometimes challenging. It s not a big concern because there are only a handful of those transfers in the whole city.There aren t any particular lines that present a big crime worry today in 2009. If it ever did exist, the world of Turk 182 and The Warriors is long behind us.
hahaha i know how you feel i carry around my map too. i actually got a little one though, from like century 21 or something they were just handing them out. but okay idk how subway-inclined you are but i know at first i could not figure it out for the life of me. so what i ve learned whch you may or may not already know is a few things. 1 if you re looking at the ACE line for example, and at the 23rd street station it only says CE under it, that means only the C E trains stop there,not the A. so make sure the train you get on stops where you need to get off. 2 yes transfers are difficult at first but i always just ask someone on the train to make sure i m getting on the right one.3 downtown ones go downtown, uptown ones go uptown. soundssilly but i ve made that mistake one too many times lol. 4 i m usually with a group so i don t worry about riding at night, but i would feel a bit uncomfortable being a 16 year old girl, riding alone in some places at night.just be cautious and keep your things close to you and you ll be fine:)
Subway rush is awful. There are no muggings or fights around where I live. There s security in some stations and watch out for the train gaps. I lost my shoe twice.
It is considered polite to tip the conductor.
All of these answers so far are terrible! Don t worry about riding the subway at night! Lots of people ride perfectly safely at night! It s not like the sun goes down and muggers all come out of the woodwork!NYC is a much safer place than it was years ago. But even when I first moved here in the 1970s, back when NYC really was more dangerous, I took the subway at night! There are no particular lines to avoid, but there are a few neighborhoods (mostly way at the ends of a few of the lines) in which caution is advised. But these parts of the system are few and far between, and not the kinds of places you are likely to find yourself accidentally. As for looking like a tourist because you consult a map, that s nonsense! LOTS of New Yorkers look at the map from time to time. Look, it s a big system, and no one knows it all by heart. If a New Yorker is going to a different part of town than usual, or their train is suddenly being re-routed, they will consult a map. It s just common sense! But we don t have to pull out the foldable map (though in the days before hopstop.com most of us used to keep a map at home) because there are maps in every subway train, in every car. And there are also maps in the stations as well. So you should be able to figure out where you are going that way (though you might have to lean over someone s shoulder to do so.) As for the I-phone apps, they won t work in most of the subway system because there is no phone signal in most of the system. I have a smartphone (not an Iphone, a different kind) and I always have to wait to pull it out till when I go over the Manhattan Bridge and my phone signal returns! I can t use it underground.Finally, what is so wrong with looking like a tourist, anyway? Most New Yorkers are very kind to tourists. Someone will usually ask if you need directions if you look like a tourist consulting a map. Why is that so bad, anyway?
the i-phone and i-pod touches have maps, and most blackberry s have those kinds of maps. I would probably not ride certain Brooklyn subways ate night, well any subway at night. My cousin Lives in Brooklyn, there are a few routes that we don t take when i visit him, but not that many. If you ride in aa group you ll probably be fine, but you can ask somebody on the subway and they re usually nice. hope i helped.
Don.t ride after dark.