anyone remember this from the 2000's when it was called triptropnyc ?
How far can you get in 40 minutes from each subway station in NYC?
151–160 of 207 posts
Re: How far can you get in 40 minutes from each subway station in NYC?
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm of the opinion that it depends on density. You could build a subway line in some US cities of 1M and nobody would ride it; you could build a subway line in a city of 50k and everyone would ride it. It depends on whether there is density to support walking directly to many things (businesses, residences, and other transit lines) or not.
Density yes, but more importantly 1) speed vs traveling by car, 2) starting and stopping in places people want to travel between, 3) safety, 4) real estate prices/regulation. Density goes to number 1 (more traffic = better reason to use the subway) and 2 (more likely to be able to serve people’s desired trip)
5) Weather. If it's under -20 C or over 40 C, walking five blocks is unpleasant for anyone and dangerous for some. Especially if the walk is unsheltered, which it typically is.
Re: How far can you get in 40 minutes from each subway station in NYC?
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having lived in / visited a few dozen cities in Europe, I actually think trams are generally preferable to subways. In places with both, I tend to use the trams almost exclusively. A hop on, hop off tram system is much quicker and efficient than going into a subway station, then back up, etc. At least if you aren’t going entirely across town.
I disagree. Trams are too slow. They are not good for long tracks, like sub ways.
And also they have much less capacity than mass transit systems like a subway, so they are bad for most commuters who tend to travel at rush hour[1]. I guess they are great in tourist areas though.
[1] In my experience, at least in the cities where I have lived
Re: How far can you get in 40 minutes from each subway station in NYC?
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm no city planner, but I would definitely connect the Amrtak station with the University of Arizona and on the other end make it reach the edge of downtown. I went to U. of A. and have absolutely never even heard of any student ever needing to go to the Amtrak station, for any reason. Not trying to be rude, but that smells like unthinkingly-applied urbanist ideology — thinking “trains are cool” and working backwa…
I get where you're coming from as I have a lot of words to say to those urbanist ideologues and none of them are pleasant. Main reason why I think subway is superior to anything, including trains riding on the surface, is that it doesn't get in the way of anything. My current city is subject to a double whammy of a train and river system. The result is of course gridlock, as bridges have limited capacity and not all…
What's the difference between a train underground and a subway?
Re: How far can you get in 40 minutes from each subway station in NYC?
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
I get where you're coming from as I have a lot of words to say to those urbanist ideologues and none of them are pleasant. Main reason why I think subway is superior to anything, including trains riding on the surface, is that it doesn't get in the way of anything. My current city is subject to a double whammy of a train and river system. The result is of course gridlock, as bridges have limited capacity and not all…
What's the difference between a train underground and a subway?
In the evolution of English language usage the term "subway" is almost always associated with passenger transport by train.
A "train underground" my or may not have passengers .. the majority tonnage of trains in mine systems is ore transport, many such systems never carry passengers although, of course, some do at shift changes.
Re: How far can you get in 40 minutes from each subway station in NYC?
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm no city planner, but I would definitely connect the Amrtak station with the University of Arizona and on the other end make it reach the edge of downtown. I went to U. of A. and have absolutely never even heard of any student ever needing to go to the Amtrak station, for any reason. Not trying to be rude, but that smells like unthinkingly-applied urbanist ideology — thinking “trains are cool” and working backwa…
I get where you're coming from as I have a lot of words to say to those urbanist ideologues and none of them are pleasant. Main reason why I think subway is superior to anything, including trains riding on the surface, is that it doesn't get in the way of anything. My current city is subject to a double whammy of a train and river system. The result is of course gridlock, as bridges have limited capacity and not all…
I get where you’re coming from, but I can’t think of a definition of “city” that would exclude Tucson. It’s a large, connected settlement of humans who don’t primarily live from the land.
For what it’s worth, Tucson does have suburbs, which are even less dense than Tucson (e.g. Oro Valley).
Re: How far can you get in 40 minutes from each subway station in NYC?
#157I'm of the opinion that every 500k+ city should have a subway line. I grew up in a city with one (just one for the majority of my 20 years there) and if there's one thing I miss from that place it's the ability to move at an average speed of 35km/h at any time the trains were operating, especially at 2am on a Friday night after a couple of beers with the guys. The other thing I noticed when I was visiting my family t…
> and if there's one thing I miss from that place it's the ability to move at an average speed of 35km/h at any time the trains were operating
I think ours could go up to 50 or 60km/h, but the density of stations (can’t leave any blocks behind!), station dwell times and time for one transfer puts it at equal time to cycling for me in Toronto.
And my cycling route isn’t a more direct route (cuz our surface routes are largely a grid and we just replicated it underground instead of something more synergizing like a giant X).
A fun hobby of mine is to open up Paris on google maps and compare the cycling and transit times in their daytime between arbitrary points and cycling often wins. Theyre drunk on station density so you’re always close to one, but it means a lot of stopping.
Re: How far can you get in 40 minutes from each subway station in NYC?
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
And then landowners who were “smart” enough to own land where this ends up going in get to reap all the financial upside, instead of the public which actually invested in that infrastructure. Just imagine if the public could capture the (financial) upside it produces, then it could apply that money to do the same thing down the road, then do the same thing again down the road further. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He…
> Just imagine if the public could capture the (financial) upside it produces... Like through taxes on the sale of the property or the increased business income it produces? The public will.
> Like through taxes on the sale of the property
That just encourages corporate ownership of property (unless you mitigate that), but overall I don’t know why we’d disincentivize moving closer to a new workplace or into a smaller home once it will do for you.
Re: How far can you get in 40 minutes from each subway station in NYC?
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
MTA runs express trains. They don't get up to 100mph, but they skip many local stops along the way. Raising their speed to 100mph would likely not meaningfully increase transit time - you'd maybe shave off a few minutes.
I wonder if there was a way to calculate how many more passengers they could serve if they had faster trains?
You just have to look at the peak ridership figures from 1949. They're running well under the capacity the system could handle 75 years ago. Faster trains aren't necessary.
Re: How far can you get in 40 minutes from each subway station in NYC?
#160Yeah. Isochrones are great, because they clearly show the inferiority of ANY type of public transit to cars.
FYI, the average speed of a car in midtown Manhattan is under 5mph. The subway is 17mph.