Finding the desired exit from a given subte station

[Redpossum]

The station in question is JM de Rosas, the northern terminal of the B line. Being a terminal station, a train can arrive at either side of the platform. And there are staircases at both ends of the central platform.

With a mid-line station, one can just memorize, "I turn left after I get off" or whatever. But with Rosas, I have no idea how to tell which way I go for exit 6. If I get the wrong exit, I wind up having to walk all the way around the block.

Obviously this isn't a life and death matter. It won't kill me to have to walk around another manzana, but when my back is sore, or my knees are hurting, I'd really rather make the trip from station to home as short as possible.

So, the question is, when I have just stepped off the train, and I'm on that platform, is there any way to tell which staircase leads to exit 6? I don't see any, but many times in past when I've asked such question, someone in this community of clever people has revealed an answer which I had missed, or a secret technique to make this sprawling, brawling great city a bit more navigable.

 

[lunar]

With a mid-line station, one can just memorize, "I turn left after I get off" or whatever. But with Rosas, I have no idea how to tell which way I go for exit 6. If I get the wrong exit, I wind up having to walk all the way around the block.

Just take a note of the direction from which your train arrives. You can either follow in the same direction, or go in the opposite one.

 

[elhombresinnombre]

I don't have an answer but I have the same sort of problem, not with railway or subte stations but with the whole grid system of city planning. I have no sense of direction and coming from a country where historically most of the roads take their cues from the landscape - or follow the medieval boundaries of fields - which themselves tend to the landscape - if I can't memorise the Buenos Aires street names (and I can't) then all the grids look the same to me and unless I stumble across some familiar landmark, if I get distracted, say by a shop window, I can find myself walking away at 90 deg or even 180 deg from where I want to go.

I live in Comuna 11 so you can't walk far until you bump into a railway track. But which railway track? In the past, people used to ask, Where have you been? What took you so long? But now they know and just shrug. I find cities like Jujuy, and to a lesser extent Salta and Tucuman easier to navigate because they aren't slaves to the grid to such an extent. Away from Argentina, I find La Paz, Bolivia the easiest because the city streets are almost all derived from the landscape contours.

So how do I manage around Buenos Aires? To be honest, when I'm going somewhere unfamiliar, I take my Silva Compass with me!

 

[SinPulgas]

Use Google Maps. It updates your position constantly so you can see which way you're going, and if you're going in your intended direction.

 

[elhombresinnombre]

Use Google Maps. It updates your position constantly so you can see which way you're going, and if you're going in your intended direction.

That would involve using a mobile phone of some sort, Which I Do Not Have.

...and don't you find it just a little bit creepy that Google Maps always knows exactly where you are?

 

[SinPulgas]

That would involve using a mobile phone of some sort, Which I Do Not Have.

After years of resisting, I finally got one four years ago. And now, at least for banking and brokerage accounts, I need it (f**king 2FA). But I have to admit that it comes in handy.

...and don't you find it just a little bit creepy that Google Maps always knows exactly where you are?

No, not really. Not yet, anyway.

 

[FrankPintor]

You should be able to set sharing your location to only "when using", so Google Maps only knows about you when you allow it to, by using the application. Otherwise it should have no idea where you are, and I would never tell it where I live and where I work (though it probably has a good idea already).

Otherwise use an offline application like Maps.me. You don't even have to be connected to a network to use it (only when you download the maps, obviously), so no danger of oversharing anything.

 

[Redpossum]

Just take a note of the direction from which your train arrives. You can either follow in the same direction, or go in the opposite one.

Good suggestion, thanks! I was in Rosas today, so I took a good hard look around, and there really are no listings visible from below on the actual platform. But I did discover that I can take exit 3 if I wind up on the wrong end, and it lets me out even closer to my destination than exit 6.

All in all, Rosas is far from being the most confusing Subte station. I still haven't fully figured out Tribunales on the D line. It has so many exits, and some of them are far apart. But I have learned the landmarks around that 1x3 block complex of green areas. Along the southern short edge (Lavalle) there are a row of used booksellers' kiosks that specialize in used legal books. The Teatro Colon is in the middle of the eastern side (Libertad). And if I can look straight north down Talcahuano the the orange livery of a certain bank on the corner of Cordoba is visible through the trees. These days all I need to do is take a quick glance around and I know where I am.

I think the biggest station is that triple complex on 9 de Julio where the B, C, and D lines cross. All three have a different name. It's Pellegrini on the B line, 9 de Julio on the D line, and Diagonal Norte on the C line. But in reality they're all together in one big complex, where you can wind up going down stairs, down more stairs, and then back up more stairs before you get to your desired platform.

I was emerging from the bowels of that station today, dragging myself up one step at a time, with my knees creaking and groaning, when this athletic young lady came literally skipping down the stairs, nimble as a mountain goat, hitting every other step. And I thought, ahh, to be young again! This world isn't made for seniors. Nor should it be, in all truth.

 

[gracielle]

This world isn't made for seniors. Nor should it be, in all truth.

You can use the elevator. Most of the stations, if not all of them, have one.

 

[Redpossum]

You can use the elevator. Most of the stations, if not all of them, have one.

I thought those were only for the handicapped?