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Where the New York City Subway Doesn't Go

citylab.com

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Re: Where the New York City Subway Doesn't Go

#11

Post by jawngee »

wjnc wrote: post #3

Walk people, walk! Why only 500m, it's only a 6 minute walk! Not including traffic, so might be some more. Increase that radius to a 10 minute walk on one end and a there is a lot more coverage (pi x r 2). And you're hitting your daily movement lower limit of 30 minutes. Or am I really thinking outside the US box?

New Yorkers walk more than any other city I've lived in. In fact, about a year after I moved out of NYC to Saigon I gained quite a few extra pounds because I wasn't walking nearly the same amount. Which used to be about 5-6 miles a day in NYC on an average day.

Re: Where the New York City Subway Doesn't Go

#12

Post by acveilleux »

FlannelPancake wrote: post #9
wjnc wrote: post #3

Walk people, walk! Why only 500m, it's only a 6 minute walk! Not including traffic, so might be some more. Increase that radius to a 10 minute walk on one end and a there is a lot more coverage (pi x r 2). And you're hitting your daily movement lower limit of 30 minutes. Or am I really thinking outside the US box?

Walking sucks in the winter. It's never ridiculously cold (certainly not midwest or Canada cold), but windchill is frequent and kinda nasty if you have literally any skin exposed. Especially in the outer boroughs (not so much in Manhattan), snow doesn't get cleaned up very quickly either. Walking can definitely be a bit of an obstacle course - ice, snow banks blocking the sidewalk, etc. Anyway blah blah blah first wo…

As a canadian, I find that unconvincing. For the last few years up until this July, my commute involved a 900m walk to the nearest subway stop (which I considered nice and short!) year-round. And yes, it took twice as long when there was 8-12" of fresh snow, which happened ib average every other week in winter.

City was Montreal.

Re: Where the New York City Subway Doesn't Go

#13

Post by adrianN »

bunderbunder wrote: post #8

The radius of the circle the author used, 500m, is a bit under twice the length of a Manhattan block. I can guarantee you that your typical regular transit user is capable of walking a couple blocks without having to stop for a Gatorade.

Maybe they're used to SimCity. Sims walk about 400 meters.

Re: Where the New York City Subway Doesn't Go

#14

Post by Ollinson »

Spooky23 wrote: post #10

Ignoring the bus lines is pretty wacky. I grew up in Queens, and rode the bus all of the time. My dad took the bus to the express train to manhattan for several years. The bus isn't sexy, but it works and is often less unpleasant than the subway. Also, you need to remember how places like Queens developed. It was mostly little downs until about 100 years ago. The house I grew up in was part of a 120 acre farm as late…

It really is wacky.

I understand why the author made the omission though. I've been on public bus systems in many major US cities and they are entirely the domain of the elderly, handicapped or impoverished.

The NYC bus system though is used by all walks of life, much like the subway itself. In a way I'm glad that the bus system is seen by transplants as less sexy because it keeps the rents in all those neighborhoods not directly serviced by subway lines much cheaper. With Bus Time and a huge fleet [1] of buses, the NYC bus system is often more reliable than the trains.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_local_bu...

Re: Where the New York City Subway Doesn't Go

#16

Post by noer »

500m is a little over a quarter of a mile and can be walked by an average person in just over 6 minutes, if the author extended those radii by 250m to 750, it would be closer to half a mile, which a person can walk in about 10 minutes and, probably represents a more realistic view of how long someone will walk to the subway. That said, I used to live a little over a half mile from the Nassau Av G station. There was a bus that would take me there, but I eventually figured out that unless I saw the bus was a block or two away from my corner, it would just be quicker to walk to the station, rather than wait for the bus.

Re: Where the New York City Subway Doesn't Go

#17

Post by pdabbadabba »

Spooky23 wrote: post #10

Ignoring the bus lines is pretty wacky. I grew up in Queens, and rode the bus all of the time. My dad took the bus to the express train to manhattan for several years. The bus isn't sexy, but it works and is often less unpleasant than the subway. Also, you need to remember how places like Queens developed. It was mostly little downs until about 100 years ago. The house I grew up in was part of a 120 acre farm as late…

It's worth bearing in mind that in areas of NYC where the bus is the only option, a bus commute is often much much longer than a subway commute. I had the displeasure of attempting a few bus commutes into Manhattan from my old neighborhood in Bed-Stuy, and I would not be eager to do it again.

So, while I agree that one shouldn't completely ignore the buses, I think it is also misleading to treat them as equivalent to subways.

Re: Where the New York City Subway Doesn't Go

#19

Post by FlannelPancake »

acveilleux wrote: post #12
FlannelPancake wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walking sucks in the winter. It's never ridiculously cold (certainly not midwest or Canada cold), but windchill is frequent and kinda nasty if you have literally any skin exposed. Especially in the outer boroughs (not so much in Manhattan), snow doesn't get cleaned up very quickly either. Walking can definitely be a bit of an obstacle course - ice, snow banks blocking the sidewalk, etc. Anyway blah blah blah first wo…

As a canadian, I find that unconvincing. For the last few years up until this July, my commute involved a 900m walk to the nearest subway stop (which I considered nice and short!) year-round. And yes, it took twice as long when there was 8-12" of fresh snow, which happened ib average every other week in winter. City was Montreal.

> And yes, it took twice as long

Yeah, that sucks. If it takes you 12 minutes normally to walk 1 km (assuming 5 km/h, which is a normal walking speed), now it takes you 24 minutes to and from the station in the winter.

So you're spending 45 minutes a day just walking to and from the station. If the rest of your commute is 30 minutes (train + walking to work from train), you're commuting for nearly two hours (1:48) every day vs. 1:24 during the summer.

That's assuming you don't also walk slower from the train station to work, which would make it even more of a timesink.

If you lived right near the station, it would be 60 minutes every day, winter or summer.

I mean yeah, it's only an extra 30-60 minutes a day (and your point was really only about winter so we'll be fair and say 30 minutes a day), but shit, I'm not going to turn my nose up at that. I'd definitely pay a small premium to get that time back every single weekday.

Re: Where the New York City Subway Doesn't Go

#20

Post by bigredtech »

koliber wrote: post #5

The author is misleading about lack of subway access to JFK airport. I have traveled many times to JFK by subway. He is technically correct that the subway does not tunnel underneath JFK and does not go to terminals. However, you take the A train and then hop onto the AirTrain provided by JFK to get to the terminal.

You can also take the LIRR from Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn to JFK and it's really easy and convenient.
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