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Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC NOW, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, April 4th. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill.

Michael Hill: The New York state budget is already days late and as WNYC's John Campbell reports go, Governor Hochul says she's more than willing to make it even later.

John Campbell: Hochul says she has four policy priorities that she needs in a final budget, and they go far beyond dollars and cents. Among them are a crackdown on wearing masks in certain situations and a proposal to ease rules that govern how prosecutors share evidence with defendants. The governor says she'll hold out until she gets what she wants.

Governor Hochul: I'm truly not in any rush. I will stay here as long as it takes to get the budget that I believe that delivers for New Yorkers.

John Campbell: Hochul hasn't been able to strike a deal with Democratic lawmakers thus far. They passed a short-term extension that will keep the state properly funded through Monday.

Michael Hill: Some tour guides in the five boroughs say lost business and cancellations are crushing them in the wake of federal tariffs and Trump's calls to annex Canada. Real New York Tours says 20 bus tours of Canadians have already canceled. They say that means thousands of dollars of lost revenue. Canadian officials also say that Canadian car trips across the border from the US are down almost 10%, based on data from February last year and this year. Data from the city's tourism bureau show that last year, 1 million Canadian tourists visited New York City.

The Mets are back in Queens to play their first home game of this new season. They'll play the Toronto Blue Jays this afternoon at 3:10. WNYC's Verónica Del Valle follows one fan prepping for this big day.

Verónica Del Valle: Aaron Manning is getting ready for his first ever home opener by taking a trip to the new Mets store at Union Square. Two decades of Mets fandom have led him to this moment. Now he feels like he has to impart some wisdom on newer fans prepping for the season ahead.

Aaron Manning: Get ready to be nervous a lot. Get ready to bite your fingers. Get ready to be very, very nervous all the time because being a Mets fan is one of the hardest things in the world.

Verónica Del Valle: The Mets are hoping to make the highs and lows of backing the Orange and Blue a little easier this year, with slugger Juan Soto on the team. The Amazin's signed him away from their crosstown rivals, the Yankees. He's set to play in Queens for the next 15 years.

Michael Hill: Get ready to be nervous. I like that. 65 with rain right now. Showers this morning. It'll become sunny, a high in the mid-60s, and for that Mets home opener at 3:10, 64 and partly sunny. This is WNYC.

Janae Pierre: It's Friday. That means it's time for our weekly segment of On the Way, covering all things transportation. That's after the break.

Announcer: NYC NOW.

Sean Carlson: I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. It's Friday, which means it's time for On the Way, our weekly segment on all things considered, breaking down the week's transit news. Joining us is WNYC's transportation reporters Stephen Nessen and Ramsey Khalifeh and editor Clayton Guse. We learned about some big changes this week to the subway map. The MTA released its first fully redesigned subway map in nearly 50 years. It's hitting stations and subway cars right now. Stephen, you were there for the unveiling. Tell us about the new map.

Stephen Nessen: It's definitely very different than the previous one. It's got much less clutter, more focus on train lines and connections. The idea, I think, behind it is that it should be easier for people to navigate and show clearly where stations are, where they're accessible, and where the transfer points are.

Sean Carlson: Cool.

Stephen Nessen: Let's get into some of the details. Right away, I think folks are going to notice that the shape of the city is gone. The last map had some geographic resemblance to New York City. The new one, not so much. Even Central Park is just reduced to a square. I think the biggest difference between the new one and the last one, which really has been in use since 1979 with just a few updates over the years, but it's the end of the spaghetti-like subway lines.

This new map has got thick, colorful lines for every line. The A, C, E are three blue chunks which subway aficionados will recognize as being very similar to the short-lived but very popular 1972 map designed by the Italian Massimo Vignelli. The new map really does draw a lot from the Vignelli map with some new additions. One big change is this new map has black bullets next to each stop. Previously, it was just a black dot. These new dots are bigger and they have the letter or number of the line embedded in it. It's high contrast, so it's easier for people to see.

I spoke with designer Steven Flamm who says these sorts of high-contrast dots are good for people with vision issues, and also it's just good for absorbing information quickly.

Sean Carlson: Sure.

Stephen Nessen: I asked him, "Look, man, I just check Google Maps when I want to get where I'm going, sorry." I asked him, "Why even go through the trouble of updating the old map?"

Steven Flamm: A lot of people will say, "Do we even need a map? We have Google Maps," and we say, "Well, we want to just show where our lines go, where the stops are, how to make your transfers. In a nutshell, how to ride the subway quickly at a glance."

Stephen Nessen: At a glance also means stripping away a lot of the old stuff, like the landmarks on the map, the museums, even the street names are all gone.

Ramsey Khalifeh: That's personally why I'm not a biggest fan of the map-

Sean Carlson: Whoa. Shots fired.

Ramsey Khalifeh: -if people care. That's one of those reasons. I'm thinking, "Look, it looks good, the colors, the thickness of the lines, but I'd rather the map maybe be a bit more geographically accurate. Makes me think of who this map is really for." I think mostly tourists want to see the map on the trains when they're visiting the city, and they need a physical map. Sometimes, they have their own tourist maps that show them where they'd like to go, whether it's the Met or the Empire State Building. If the maps aren't geographically aligned, maybe it might be a challenge for them to get around.

Sean Carlson: Interesting. Stephen, you spoke with that head designer. Are there any other Easter eggs or fun details we need to know about?

Stephen Nessen: There's some cool new things that-- little details you'll have to look carefully to find but there's two locations that indicate a free out-of-station transfer, and there's a little walking man with some dots. Those are in Brooklyn at the Junius Street and Livonia Avenue stations and at 59th and 63rd Street in Manhattan. Folks also notice the ADA symbols are not just bigger, but they also indicate if only one direction is ADA-accessible, which is useful.

The connections to the airport are more clear than they were before, and even the terminals at JFK are numbered, but you'll see some are missing where they're under construction right now. Probably the most interesting thing for me is what's excluded, which is, we said a few things, but nearly all the parks are also gone. I asked Flamm about this, and he said we only include parks that are, "accessible by subway." Although, I'd argue you can walk to almost any park from the subway.

Clayton Guse: Sean, when you think about a map, you think about a statement of values. Really, what are you leaving in, what are you taking off, what are you literally wiping off the map, and what are you keeping there? Stephen here got some good scuttlebutt on some deliberations over what they wanted to take off for some people.

Sean Carlson: Do tell.

Stephen Nessen: Apparently some people at the MTA wanted to remove all references to Amtrak on the map.

Sean Carlson: Yikes.

Stephen Nessen: It's a good reminder that all maps are political, as Clayton was saying. Here's Flamm, the lead designer explaining how that went down.

Steven Flamm: Somebody, and I'm not going to tell you who, questioned why are we showing Amtrak. The answer is, you want people to come to the city. It's a huge connection, the Northeast Corridor. You have to show Amtrak.

Stephen Nessen: Needless to say, Amtrak, as well as the PATH and NJ Transit connections, are included in the final map.

Clayton Guse: The deliberations are a huge surprise. Say the word Amtrak in front of MTA chair Janno Lieber, and he'll turn bright red. They fought with Amtrak over blaming them for some delays on their long delayed eastside access project. They've argued with them publicly and privately over the future of Penn Station, which is owned by Amtrak but largely used by the MTA. Every time, they seem to fight and disagree. The MTA, for what it's worth, has built something over the last 60 years. I don't know if you can say as much for Amtrak in terms of expanding the national railroad.

Sean Carlson: For sure. We're going to shift gears here a little bit. Ramsey, you reported on a tragic death of a family killed in a car crash on Brooklyn's Ocean Parkway. It comes as the city and state have struggled to implement any major redesigns on the roadway, despite years of advocacy from locals. Why?

Ramsey Khalifeh: For one, it's a lot of coordination. Ocean Parkway is actually a state road. In order for the city DOT, the Department of Transportation to make any changes, they'd have to partner with the state to get it done. Here's some of the glaring issues with Ocean Parkway for pedestrians. I actually made a visit this week to see what those were. For one, the roads are very wide. It's six lanes wide, in fact, and two service roads on either side. What wider roads mean is that it's actually more likely for drivers to maybe abuse the speed limits, like what happened last weekend.

The pedestrian walkway is also sandwiched between all of this. Neighbors told me when I visited that there have been instances where they've almost been hit by cars turning from the service road onto the pedestrian island. The bike lane is another island on the other side, and it's actually one of the oldest in the city. Much of that lane is in disrepair with cracks and bumps creating unsafe conditions for cyclists.

When you get all of that into consideration, Ocean Parkway has actually become a very deadly road. It's actually 15 pedestrians who have been killed since 2017. That figure includes, unfortunately, the family that was killed this past weekend. 34-year-old Natasha Saada and her daughters, Diana and Deborah. They were killed by a speeder who blew a red light and turned into Ocean Parkway. A four-year-old boy from the Saada family is also injured and in critical condition.

Also despite this and maybe other few higher-profile traffic deaths this year, we should note that the city did report in the first quarter, it's actually been one of the safest in a while, where 41 people were killed in traffic accidents. If you compare that to the same period last year, it's down from 65 traffic fatalities.

Sean Carlson: Every week in our On the Way newsletter, we answer a question from a curious commuter. This one is from Carl in Manhattan. "Why doesn't the NYC ferry system connect Staten Island with any other borough besides Manhattan?"

Stephen Nessen: Carl makes a very good point. There is an NYC ferry stop that goes from St. George, like the free Staten Island ferry. You have to pay for the NYC ferry, and goes to two stops in lower Manhattan. It could go anywhere in theory, to any existing ferry stop. There's already a stop in Bay Ridge, which is what Carl's getting at here or anywhere else, but Justin Brannan, council member, he's running for mayor, Camilla Hanks, councilmember for Staten Island, have written a letter saying, "Hey, give us a connection between Bay Ridge and Staten island via the ferry."

The message from the EDC, Economic Development Corporation, has said, "No, we're not going to bother with that." It's already a very highly subsidized per-rider ferry system. They've come under a lot of scrutiny. Adding new routes would add more costs to that. They're saying, "Hey, take it or leave it. Drive over the Verrazano, take a bus. We're not giving you a boat between the boroughs."

Sean Carlson: Small correction. We should note that Justin Brannan is running for City Comptroller.

Stephen Nessen: Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, City Comptroller. Thank you for correcting me. It's been a long week, Sean.

Sean Carlson: Keeping us honest here. Thanks to Carl for the question, and thanks to WNYC editor Clayton Guse and transportation reporters Stephen Nessen and Ramsey Khalifeh. You can stay in the know on all things transit or ask a question of your own by signing up for our weekly newsletter at gothamist.com/ontheway. My friends, thanks so much.

?Stephen Nessen: Thanks, Sean.

?Ramsey Khalifeh: Thank you, Sean.

?Clayton Guse: Thank you.

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Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening. This is NYC NOW from wnyc. Catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More soon.

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