Transportation: Subways Can Be Beautiful

“The most squalid public environment of the U.S.: dank, dingily lit, fetid, raucous with screechingclatter.”

Thus Mayor Lindsay’s task force on urban design characterized the New York City subway system last year.

But the description applies just about as well to any of the nation’s other three metropolitan subways. Riding underground in the U.S. is such an un pleasant experience that countless potential passengers simply avoid it, and their lost fares contribute significantly to chronic operating deficits.

The situation should soon begin to improve dramatically. Already existing underground systems are slated for ex tensive renewal. Faster and quieter passenger cars are now in the prototype stage. And the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development is dis tributing grants around the country to such cities as Seattle, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Washington— all of which are planning to build new subways— to help them finance technical studies. 80-m.p.h. Bursts. Most heartening example of what a modern subway system can look like and accomplish is Montreal’s new Metro. With its quiet, rubber-wheeled cars and elegant, uncluttered stations, it is, except for a lingering problem with the air conditioning, a positive pleasure. One year old this week, it has proved so popular that passenger traffic is running 50% higher than expected; the Metro has even generated an extra midday rush as executives have taken up the European practice of going home for lunch. Montreal’s present transit strike only points up the Metro’s importance: by conservative estimate, 50,000 additional autos are clogging downtown streets because of the strike.

Spurred on by Montreal, San Francisco is making an all-out effort to have good design the hallmark of its $1 billion-plus Bay Area Rapid Transit system, now under construction. About one-third of the 75-mile system will be underground, and Market and Mission streets are already being excavated. What San Franciscans will ride in when B.A.R.T. begins operations in 1970 is the latest in trains: streamlined, air-conditioned, 72-passenger cars that will average 50 m.p.h., with bursts up to 80 m.p.h., and will be directed by computers to run as close as 90 seconds apart during peak hours.

Convinced that the time has come to overhaul its antiquated and uncomfortable system, New York City’s Transit Authority recently announced a $5,800,000, six-station renovation program. It has also begun experimenting with air-conditioned, sound-proofed cars with fiber glass molded seats and hopes to cut down noise by laying rubber cushioning between the tracks and roadbed and by replacing short sections of track with longer, welded ones.

Images Against Chaos. Just how much can be done with a gloomy, old-fashioned station is being demonstrated in Boston, where the city’s transportation authority is redesigning 40 stops as part of its $400 million program to modernize and expand its 70-year-old subway—the oldest in the nation. The city’s showcase is its sparkling Arlington Street station, first one to be redesigned by Architect Peter Chermayeff, 30, whose Cambridge Seven firm also planned the U.S. exhibit at Expo 67. Chermayeff’s guiding principle is that chaos and disorientation, rather than just squalor and ugliness, are the essential problems confronting subways. Says he: “We want to make the system clear to absolutely anyone walking down the street.”

To clearly identify the station entrance, he has erected signs, visible from a block away, that bear a big black “T” (for Transportation) on a white background. Inside he has installed color-coded maps that relate the stop to the rest of the subway system; advertising is restricted to the divider between inbound and outbound tracks. Most striking features of the Arlington Street stop are the porcelain enamel murals, showing such scenes as the spire of the famous Arlington Street church and the swan boats in the Public Garden. “Their purpose isn’t arbitrary decoration,” says Chermayeff, “but graphic representation of the station’s neighborhood.” As the passenger looks out the subway-train window, he sees not only a station but also an image that tells him where he is and what he will find when he emerges aboveground.