Soon It Will Be Easier for Visitors to Use NYC's Subways

As a born-and-bred New Yorker, I can tell you that some New Yorkers used to take a kind of mischievous delight in the fact that visitors had trouble using our subways. Hey, it cut down on the crowding! Very often, stations would have no maps posted on the platforms; and those maps that did exist were so defaced with graffiti, nobody could see where Times Square was, or how to get to the Statue of Liberty.

That was the bad old days. Welcome to kindler, gentler Gotham! A Big Apple in which Times Square means Disney musicals not hard core porn, and the FBI touts our crime stats as a model for the rest of the country (no joke: NYC is now the US' safest big city). And down in our subways, there will now be touchscreen maps, designed to make sure no tourist ever accidentally ends up in the Bronx again. According to ABC News, there will be up to 90 of these helpful devices scattered around the city in the near future.

Tourists should be very pleased.

As for locals: they'll likely grouse about the new additions. Subway fares just went up after all, and they already know where they need to get off.