“Getting around New York City can sometimes be a bewildering experience. Help is on the way.

Now the city is experimenting with a new way to help people go where they want to go without wasting more steps than they have to. The city and the private business improvement district for the neighborhood around Grand Central
Terminal have installed compass-shaped decals on sidewalks, right where riders emerge from heavily used subway stairwells.

The gold-on-black decals are 24 inches in diameter, larger than a large pizza but smaller than a manhole cover. They carry two kinds of information: directions for north, east, south and west, and the names of the nearest streets.

Should the first decals prove to be a hit, city officials hope they can team up with other business improvement districts and propagate the decals in other parts of the city where exiting subway riders could use a guide.

One of the decals that officials showed off yesterday is on 42nd Street near Third Avenue, outside a passageway between a Starbucks and a Foot Locker store that leads to and from the subway. It got mostly good reviews from people who noticed it as they walked by.”

Via Moleskinerie

Surface Navigation Help for Subway Riders
By James Barron
Read the full article at The New York Times