Compass Decals Will Guide Pedestrians

By BENJAMIN SARLIN, Special to the Sun
October 17, 2007

Compass decals will be installed in the sidewalk at four locations in Midtown to guide pedestrians, the city Department of Transportation, the Grand Central Partnership, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced yesterday.

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Heuichul Kim

Temporary Compass decals have been placed around Midtown.

"Not a single person, native New Yorker or visitor, can truthfully claim that they have not, at least once, been confused as to which direction to walk when emerging from a subway station," the city's transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, said. The commissioner thanked the GCP, which paid for the decals, as well as an Upper East Side resident, Alfred Mayor, whose suggestion brought the compass plan to fruition.

In an article in the New York Times in January 2006, Mr. Mayor urged Mayor Bloomberg: "Inlay a compass in the sidewalk at the top of every subway stair in Manhattan. This will direct the disoriented to walk in the right direction." He added, "I have lived here 71 years and I am still one of the disoriented."

Temporary versions of the compasses, designed by sculptor Gregg Lefevre, will be tested for one week, until October 23, at four subway exits: two at Grand Central Terminal and one each at the subway stops at Lexington Avenue-51st Street and Fifth Avenue-53rd Street. If they receive a positive response from the public, the temporary decals can be replaced with a more permanent installation, and other neighborhoods can ask the DOT for help replicating the program.