Show HN: NYC Subway Simulator and Route Designer

#1

Post by HeavenFox » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 2:13 PM UTC

Hello HN!

As a long term NYC resident, I have read countless articles on ideas tweaking subway services, but always found them hard to follow without visual aid. So over the long weekend I decided to build one. It has all the basic features: trains would spawn at their origin, stop at stations, and slow down if it gets too close to another. You can also design custom routes by piecing tracks together.

Have fun, and let me know what you think!

Show HN: NYC Subway Simulator and Route Designer
buildmytransit.nyc

Re: Show HN: NYC Subway Simulator and Route Designer

#2

Post by xnx » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 2:46 PM UTC

Very cool.

Sometimes when I Edit Routes and click an "<- Add" button I get the console error "Uncaught Error: coordinates must be an array of two or more positions" and the page blanks out.

Re: Show HN: NYC Subway Simulator and Route Designer

#3

Post by HeavenFox » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 2:56 PM UTC

xnx wrote: post #2

Very cool. Sometimes when I Edit Routes and click an "<- Add" button I get the console error "Uncaught Error: coordinates must be an array of two or more positions" and the page blanks out.

Thanks - this is likely due to adding two tracks facing each other, i.e.

-->-->-- --I'll add some logic to prevent such options from showing up.

Re: Show HN: NYC Subway Simulator and Route Designer

#4

Post by pimlottc » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 4:13 PM UTC

This is sadly not mobile friendly in an amusing way; the map controls are nice and legible but they block basically the entire map. If there was a way to minimize them (perhaps automatically), this might work well on mobile.

Re: Show HN: NYC Subway Simulator and Route Designer

#5

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 4:39 PM UTC

pimlottc wrote: post #4

This is sadly not mobile friendly in an amusing way; the map controls are nice and legible but they block basically the entire map. If there was a way to minimize them (perhaps automatically), this might work well on mobile.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: NYC Subway Simulator and Route Designer

#6

Post by kiwibyproxy » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 7:43 PM UTC

Very cool! It would be nice to have a bit more information in the readme about the project structure and e.g. how to adapt it for other cities :)

Re: Show HN: NYC Subway Simulator and Route Designer

#7

Post by darthplagius » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 8:08 PM UTC

I contract out work to MTA, specifically their AI/ innovation teams.

I'm 100% showing this to them today just for fun. They'll get a kick out of it.

Re: Show HN: NYC Subway Simulator and Route Designer

#8

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 9:00 PM UTC

pimlottc wrote: post #4

This is sadly not mobile friendly in an amusing way; the map controls are nice and legible but they block basically the entire map. If there was a way to minimize them (perhaps automatically), this might work well on mobile.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: NYC Subway Simulator and Route Designer

#9

Post by ars » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 9:13 PM UTC

I can't figure out how to add a route from Bay Ridge to Clinton in NJ. That's my wishlist subway - got to Newark Airport from Brooklyn without going through Manhattan.

Edit: Actually Clifton is in NY, and playing with Google maps there's ZERO public transport from Staten Island to NJ, except by going through Manhattan!

So my idea wouldn't help anyway, unless they extended that subway all the way over the Goethals Bridge.

Re: Show HN: NYC Subway Simulator and Route Designer

#10

Post by indoordin0saur » Mon, Jul 07, 2025, 9:28 PM UTC

Very nice! I thought of doing the same thing in the past!