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Boston Subway Time-Scale Map

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Re: Boston Subway Time-Scale Map

#21

Post by andygcook »

davidjhall wrote: post #2

I would love to see this color-coded with average house/apartment prices --- to see if each arc is equitable or if you can see a pattern ( +10% by the water, etc).

I overlayed this map on a heat map of 2013 rents in Boston: http://imgur.com/oZoCDtV

It's not 100% accurate, but it gives you a rough estimate of time to the Hub vs. rent. In general, the biggest selling point for Boston apartment seekers is proximity to the T and time to commute to the the Financial District (near Goverment Center). Areas near colleges (BU, MIT, Havard, Northeastern) are also high rent because college students eat up most of the housing.

As an active apartment seeker in Boston, the original heatmap data source is generally pretty accurate: http://www.jefftk.com/apartment_prices/index

Re: Boston Subway Time-Scale Map

#22

Post by mauvehaus »

greenyoda wrote: post #17
anateus wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in Boston, distance to a T station seems to be the strongest factor correlating with apartment prices: http://www.wbur.org/2013/01/30/boston-apartments-heat-map

But there are many exceptions. For example, Cambridge (red), Somerville (yellow), Chelsea (green) and Roxbury (blue) are all within approximately the same distance of the center.

Distance to a T station, not to downtown. Cambridge and Somerville are considerably more expensive than Roxbury generally. Within any of the neighborhoods you listed, you'll find that rent goes up as you get closer to a T station.

Re: Boston Subway Time-Scale Map

#23

Post by myke_cameron »

evanb wrote: post #14
wtvanhest wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd guess from your comment that don't likely live in Boston or have spent very little time here. The way the city is set up, the T lines basically just run out toward other stuff. Only when you are in downtown can you find multiple lines close so most of the time you have only one option if any. Check this map out: http://mapsof.net/map/boston-metro-map#.UVnvrodOTYg In NYC, you can usually walk to different lines qu…

There aren't express trains, but it would still be useful to have some weekend service posted, especially for the green line (of which there are 5 once you get west enough!).

There ARE express trains, they're just not scheduled in advance (for example the b line goes express from bu east to Washington to make up for delays quite frequently).

Re: Boston Subway Time-Scale Map

#24

Post by calinet6 »

greenyoda wrote: post #6

The major drawback of this map is that it gives you no clue as to how to actually get to the nearest subway station, and it doesn't tell you which subway station is close to your destination. By focusing only on travel time it has abstracted away a bit too much of the information that people expect to get from a subway map. (For example, the NYC subway map shows the locations of subway stations with respect to major…

IMHO criticizing this map for its lack of spatial accuracy is sort of missing the point. It's not designed to be in the space dimension, it's designed to be in the time dimension.

The official itself is very good for determining location and the nearest T stop to various landmarks. If that fails, then Google maps is even better.

However, this map is damn good for easily and immediately visualizing how long it takes to get from stop to stop.

Re: Boston Subway Time-Scale Map

#25

Post by bo1024 »

glenntzke wrote: post #16
bo1024 wrote: post #15

Sorry, but I only made it halfway because I had to squint to read the text. More contrast would be nice.

Fix with your browser's style inspector or if you can access a javascript console: document.getElementsByClassName('paragraph')[1].style.color = '#000000 !important' I find alternate maps like this fascinating. You really don't need to bother with much of the description though - the maps speak for themselves!

How would I do this on Chrome? Thanks.

Re: Boston Subway Time-Scale Map

#30

Post by tesseract »

andygcook wrote: post #21
davidjhall wrote: post #2

I would love to see this color-coded with average house/apartment prices --- to see if each arc is equitable or if you can see a pattern ( +10% by the water, etc).

I overlayed this map on a heat map of 2013 rents in Boston: http://imgur.com/oZoCDtV It's not 100% accurate, but it gives you a rough estimate of time to the Hub vs. rent. In general, the biggest selling point for Boston apartment seekers is proximity to the T and time to commute to the the Financial District (near Goverment Center). Areas near colleges (BU, MIT, Havard, Northeastern) are also high rent because colle…

Unfortunately it doesn't line up all that well because of the heavy distortion of the time scale map. For example the red area in the upper left corner is clearly the Mass Ave corridor in Cambridge, which in real life lines up with the red line, but you can't see that in the overlay.
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