If there’s one word to describe the New York City subway system, it’s unpredictable (at least, that’s the PG way of describing the New York MTA’s horrific inconsistency). The New York subway trains are the city’s heartbeat, routinely suffering from clogged arteries. Given all that, I can’t stop considering the analog beauty of Metroboard, a $229 light-up infrastructure infographic designed by a small team of Los Angeles-based artists. It may be the most aesthetic way to let me know when my morning commute is screwed.
The Metroboard is a Christmas tree of metropolitan infrastructure, like a switchboard you can hang on your wall or sit upright on your desk. It includes the various lines and stations along the traditional subway maps in several major U.S. cities. As the day winds to a close, you’ll see those lights switching off for the slower evenings. During rush hour, Metroboard is a kaleidoscope of blinking lights as working stiffs rush to their office, praying to the gods of the MTA a tree doesn’t fall on the tracks ahead (it happens more often than you think).
It’s powered with a single USB-C cable, and you’ll need to connect it to your home internet to receive real-time information from various cities’ transit authorities. The small studio Design Rules Company is launching with maps for Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Boston, and the Bay Area.
It’s a walnut frame with an all-aluminum face and holes to mount the various LED lights. Once you connect it to your home WiFi, it’s a rather hands-off design, though you can still control whether the LEDs show in color or plain white. You can also configure the lights’ brightness and even set whether you want to see trains in transit or only at the station.
Artists Kirill Safin and Emily Perkins head up the design team. The pair told Fast Company the art was inspired by a cross-country train trip where they rode the subway systems of the six cities on offer. The concept was to show these cities as a “truly live organism,” where each light isn’t just a train but represents the tens or hundreds of thousands of commuters hunched shoulder to shoulder in those cars, day after day.
Barring any delays, Design Rules Company expects to launch Metroboard this September. The team wrote that those who set a $3 reservation are supposed to receive $80 off their first order. Those who preorder can get it for $189, but the total retail price is $229 after launch.
The team told Fast Company they hope to expand to non-U.S. train systems like London’s tube. I personally would love to see a rendition of Tokyo’s complicated but incredibly efficient metro system. Perhaps I can look at it with equal parts envy and reverence after my MTA app gives me the rundown of how every train I need to take is delayed—and not for the first time this month.
