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Read the press release here.

New Subway Map Inflates Manhattan at Staten Island's Expense

By Test Reporter | May 28, 2010 12:26pm
Crisper colors, fewer bus connection details and a bloated Manhattan characterize the MTA's new map
Crisper colors, fewer bus connection details and a bloated Manhattan characterize the MTA's new map
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Courtesy of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority

By Tara Kyle

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — Manhattanites who think of themselves as living at the center of the universe will have even more reason to strut when they see the MTA's newly designed subway map.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's updated and easier-to read map, the first since 1998, depicts an island even more disproportionately longer and wider than the older version, according to the New York Times.

Manhattan's 30 percent increase in girth is necessary to accommodate detailed information about its many subway stations, officials said.

But Staten Islanders, residents of the least populous of the city's five boroughs, must suffer the indignity of having their home turf shrunk to half its size in the new map.

Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx will each have room to grow with the cutting of the older map’s lower right hand “service guide,” according to the Times.

The changes are intended to help commuters and tourists better navigate the city’s complex network of subway systems.

Over the past century, the MTA has sought through a string of designs to find the right balance between providing too much or too little detail. Neighborhood and street names, landmarks and bus and ferry connections have come and gone.

In its latest iteration, the map seeks to be more streamlined.

“In its desire to be complete and provide a great deal of information, it took away from some of the clarity you would have with a simpler map,” chairman Jay H. Walder told the Times of the 1998 version.

The map’s color palette is also getting a makeover, the Times reported.  Water will become a bolder blue, land a greener beige, and parks more olive than emerald.

The MTA will issue 1.5 million copies of the new map in June, with a total of six million forthcoming this year, according to the Times.