To busy New Yorkers walking briskly by, the mosaic inside a Times Square subway station might look like a Confederate flag.

It is not, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority assured riders on Friday. But less than a week after violence broke out at a Virginia rally, ostensibly over the planned removal of a statue of a Confederate general, officials are not taking any chances.

So in order to “avoid absolutely any confusion,” the M.T.A. said in a statement that it would modify the design to make it “absolutely crystal clear” that it does not depict a symbol of Southern defiance.

The design, which is essentially a red square covered by a blue-and-white “X,” is actually “based on geometric forms that represent the ‘Crossroads of the World,’” officials said.