NYC Subway Maps Are Now Touchscreen Capable

The advent of the iPhone has brought about touchscreen capability in mobile devices to an even broader level of appeal among the masses, and in this day and age, we more or less expect relevant gadgets to come with a touchscreen display right from the get go. New York subway riders have touchscreen subway maps to look forward to, where the first batch has gone live over in Grand Central Station.

Over the course of the past one month, the first of 18 MTA On the Go kiosks (as they are called) were installed in the Grand Central subway station. Out of the 18, eight of them have been distributed between the uptown and downtown segments of the major 4/5/6 north-south arteries, while the remaining 10 would be placed all over the mezzanine above which will connect the subway to the commuter rail station.

These touchscreen displays happen to be large interactive navigation centers, where they will offer users real-time up information about your destination as well as any possible service disruptions that might happen. Of course, there is nothing quite like a paper map whenever there is a power cut and no backup power is available, and if vandalism rates are not high, then touchscreen subway map kiosks would make perfect sense at stations, not to mention having it facilitate a more efficient way of dispensing information to commuters.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: touchscreen