Subway signs such as this are second nature to New Yorkers, though tourists frequently need help deciphering them, especially when the trains are undergoing construction and operating along different routes.
Gas station/convenience stores commonly found along certain thoroughfairs in the outer boroughs frequently offer auto repairs and maintenance as well. As these areas are becoming more gentrified, however, these small business are becoming less common.
Escalators are found throughout the city, both above and below ground. Using motion sensors in escalators has been considered in improving NYC’s efficiency, to avoid powering them when they are not in use.
From most places in midtown, either the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building can be seen. Though such buildings tend to define many people’s ideas of what New York looks like, they only make the majority of the infrastructure in certain neighborhoods.
Multi-family apartment buildings and townhouses are found throughout the city, and the rows of fire escapes are a common aesthetic in many neighborhoods that have not yet replaced the old buildings.
Movies, TV shows, and various Broadway and off-Broadway shows are advertised on billboards, phone booths, and busses and trains and their stations in all boroughs of the city, particular those with big-name talent.
Ketchup, coffee cups and saucers, salt & pepper, sugar, and Greek keys are found in ubiquitous in diners all over the city.
The grid system is frequently taken for granted in the city (especially Manhattan but the outer boroughs as well), but New Yorkers are accustomed to streets and avenues intersecting.
Subway seats in N, R, and W trains used to be a variety of vibrant shades of red, orange and yellow. They still are the familiar shades of orange that so many New Yorkers are used to. Now some N trains have been replaced, as they probably will all be in time, with more modern and sleek looking grey, silver and purple technologically advanced cars.
Tree-lined streets may not be as common in most urban parts of New York as they are in the suburbs, but current plans and regulations for the city involve the planting of trees in order to beautify the streets of the city.
Trash heaps can be found on the sidewalk of any street, and one never knows what will be found lying discarded on the sidewalk.