Tbh, if the weekender map is made in SVG, it's really not that hard to redraw or recolor a segment of the line in code to indicate rerouting, without the need of hiring a Vignelli every week like what Lloyd suggested.

Coding D'Adamo's map in SVG, however, would be more hassles, imo, not to mention the increase of visual clutter as a result of dashed lines everywhere.

For one thing, the Weekender - like any map by Vignelli and his associates Waterhouse and Cifuentes - is a carefully balanced composition. Letting a hack insert and remove lines on a weekly basis would mean the map would be inelegantly mangled every weekend. In a lot of places on the map, there is not much free space. So, although it is technically a trivial thing to draw a new line in Illustrator, it would require skill and time to adjust all the surrounding lines that are pushed out of whack by the re-routed line so that the map retains its elegance.

For another thing, adding the checkering would be a one-off job of splitting each line into little squares, which does not affect the design of the map as such and would not require an expensive map designer to do it. Then get the app developers to add a function to the software to allow MTA ops to hide or display the alternate checker squares in an instant. Job done in a week. No further work required. Permanent and very useful improvement to the map.

Also, you wouldn't need dashed lines everywhere. If D'Adamo's checkered-color ideas were to be applied to the Weekender map, say, then only the rerouted lines would be checkered. In fact, the checkering would highlight the re-routing, which is a neat side-benefit.

Checkered line reduced legibility of the map a lot, however. Is this really a good trade-off, say, versus hiring an SVG developer who knows design to codify the Vignelli map?

unless of course the rider is colorblind. Considering 1/2 the elevators are usually broken down and the info on which elevators are broken is always horribly out of date; and walkways that force you to walk within 3 feet of passing trains, this map would really go along good with the MTA's overall focus on people with disabilities.

You could use the same technique by employing 7 x black-and-white linefills instead of 7 x colors. Dots, circles, squiggles, zig-zags, ladders, sold black, and solid white. Doesn't help with broken elevators or precipice-like platforms.

The caption for the last photo in the slideshow says, ""The current map in use was designed by Joseph Brennan," and shows a cropped portion of a map that is most definitely not the map used by the MTA. What's up with that?

A glitch in the Wired. The last map is Joe Brennan's independent design http://www.columbia.edu/~br... and has never been used by the MTA

City Rail Map, my favorite travel app, does exactly that: They redesign all major metro maps in the world with a consistent visual language. And for NYC even PATH to New Jersey is included ;)

You can get find it here, it’s free https://appsto.re/us/v3JI9.i