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Time travel: An isochronic map of travel times from London circa 1914

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Re: Time travel: An isochronic map of travel times from London circa 1914

#41

Post by takhn »

zyxley wrote: post #4
pronoiac wrote: post #3

Ooh, I've been investigating this lately, and I can't sleep. Here are some entries from my bookmarks: * BART map, one minute per hexagon - http://transitmaps.tumblr.com/post/133579339455/lopato-bart-... * Mapnificent, covering dozens of cities - http://www.mapnificent.net/ * OneBayArea, including housing prices - http://maps.planbayarea.org/travel_housing/

Huh. Mapnificent is exactly what I've been looking for recently after a change-up in local transit routes. It would certainly make it easier to eyeball "short trips" when considering the intersection of multiple transit modes, assuming it's accurate enough.

It's a nice idea, but London is hopeless - looks like they've missed out the rail network completely. I guess other cities may be better, but you really only need to miss out one key route or mode and you change the map completely

Re: Time travel: An isochronic map of travel times from London circa 1914

#42

Post by Maultasche »

bmm6o wrote: post #37

It's interesting that you could get all the way to Hawaii quicker than you could get to the west coast of South America. There doesn't seem to be a technical impediment here, I guess there just weren't scheduled ship routes at the time?

I suspect that it simply took longer to sail around Cape Horn in South America (a dangerous and time-consuming journey) to get to the west coast of South America than it did to sail to New York, take a train to California, and hop on a ship to Honolulu.

Re: Time travel: An isochronic map of travel times from London circa 1914

#43

Post by bmm6o »

Maultasche wrote: post #42
bmm6o wrote: post #37

It's interesting that you could get all the way to Hawaii quicker than you could get to the west coast of South America. There doesn't seem to be a technical impediment here, I guess there just weren't scheduled ship routes at the time?

I suspect that it simply took longer to sail around Cape Horn in South America (a dangerous and time-consuming journey) to get to the west coast of South America than it did to sail to New York, take a train to California, and hop on a ship to Honolulu.

I had assumed that a trip to Hawaii would transit the Panama Canal, but you may be right about the route. WP says the canal opened in August 1914, so it might not be included here. I wonder how different a map made just a few years later would be.

Re: Time travel: An isochronic map of travel times from London circa 1914

#44

Post by QuotedForTruth »

saalweachter wrote: post #35
contravariant wrote: post #17

Nice coincidence that it takes about 80 days to go around the world.

Reading the history of circumnavigation makes this seem like a bit of an overestimate -- Around the World in 80 Days was written in the 1870s, in the 1880s someone actually did the trip in 72 days, and in the early 1900s someone replicated it in 54 days.

Maybe this map represents more of an everyman's estimate. How long to get there using conventional transportation systems. The equivalent today being flying commercial and car/buses vs chartering a private jet and helicopters.

Re: Time travel: An isochronic map of travel times from London circa 1914

#45

Post by djhn »

takhn wrote: post #41
zyxley wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. Mapnificent is exactly what I've been looking for recently after a change-up in local transit routes. It would certainly make it easier to eyeball "short trips" when considering the intersection of multiple transit modes, assuming it's accurate enough.

It's a nice idea, but London is hopeless - looks like they've missed out the rail network completely. I guess other cities may be better, but you really only need to miss out one key route or mode and you change the map completely

I reckon it is because tfl is the data provider, and the rail network isn't a part of that?

I still found it very useful when looking for central accomodation with short commutes (<20') to centrally located places.

Re: Time travel: An isochronic map of travel times from London circa 1914

#46

Post by heyitskevin »

zyxley wrote: post #4
pronoiac wrote: post #3

Ooh, I've been investigating this lately, and I can't sleep. Here are some entries from my bookmarks: * BART map, one minute per hexagon - http://transitmaps.tumblr.com/post/133579339455/lopato-bart-... * Mapnificent, covering dozens of cities - http://www.mapnificent.net/ * OneBayArea, including housing prices - http://maps.planbayarea.org/travel_housing/

Huh. Mapnificent is exactly what I've been looking for recently after a change-up in local transit routes. It would certainly make it easier to eyeball "short trips" when considering the intersection of multiple transit modes, assuming it's accurate enough.

Walkscore uses a similar method for showing how long public transit would take from an address

https://www.walkscore.com/

Re: Time travel: An isochronic map of travel times from London circa 1914

#47

Post by clock_tower »

coldcode wrote: post #39
JshWright wrote: post #26

I think it's interesting that 100 years later, you could replace "days" with "hours" and the mail would look (roughly) the same. I wonder what the next 100 years will bring...

Maybe someone will invent a real (not dup) teleporter and then perhaps it will be seconds. I've always wondered what the world would be like if you could go anywhere in seconds.

Isn't it bland and homogenous enough already?

(And then there's the risk of suicide bombers with access to teleportation pads...)

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