This Electronic Map Provides a Real-Time Status of New York’s Subway System

The United States is notorious for its poor public transportation, with most cities — even major metropolitan areas — relying entirely on buses. But New York City is the shining exception, with a very extensive subway system that millions of people depend on. However, as good as that is by American standards, it is far from perfect. Delays and other issues can really throw off a person’s schedule, which is why Redditor YoungDimmaDome built this real-time electronic subway map that is always up to date with the MTA’s data.

YoungDimmaDome was inspired by the Traintrackr NYC Subway Circuit Board 2.0, which is an electronic subway status map available from the MoMA Design Store. But while that is a neat product, it looks like a PCB and not a map. YoungDimmaDome wanted something that looks like an MTA map and so they built it themselves.

The map covers the five boroughs, with the exception of Staten Island (because YoungDimmaDome is classy). But even with just Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx, there are a lot of stations to represent. In total, there are more than 400 of them on the map and each needs an RGB LED representing its current status. Instead of hand-wiring LEDs or making a huge PCB, YoungDimmaDome chose to make use of an interesting fiber optic system.

Underneath the map, which is in a big shadow box, there is a 16×32 RGB LED matrix controlled by an ESP32 development board. Fiber optic filaments carry the light from each LED in that matrix to the corresponding station on the map. YoungDimmaDome says the process of running those filaments was painstaking and that they take up a lot of room, but the result looks fantastic.

Because the ESP32 has built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, it can pull status information from the MTA’s API. It does so indirectly, via a local Flask server YoungDimmaDome runs that polls the MTA data once a minute. They simply assigned colors to each relevant status. For example, if an entire line is down for some reason, that whole chain of stations might turn red.

The electronic map hangs on YoungDimmaDome’s wall and so they can check with a glance if their planned route is going to work out on any given day.