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The NY Times has all sorts of great statistics about pedestrian, bicyclist and driver behavior during the transit strike today.
On average, more than 34,000 pedestrians walked over one of the four East River bridges into Manhattan, compared with only 2,000 or so per day normally.Ferry riding was also not as high as the DoT expected, and the DoT also thinks that the restrictions on cars coming into the city may have been "too restrictive." What's funny is Commisioner Weinshall 's "It's not uncommon for New Yorkers to walk a mile a day" quote to the Times. Walking a mile is easy, as it's just 20 city blocks, but since these findings taken during the strike are being presented at the Transportation Research Board meeting this week, Gothamist imagines walking a mile is outlandish for transportation commissioners in, say, Texas or other states were car is king.Total pedestrian volume on the bridges from 6 to 10 a.m. was about 14,000 - about 14 percent higher than the 12,500 recorded during the 1980 strike.
On average, 11,717 bicycles crossed the East River bridges each day of the strike. From 6 to 10 a.m., the number of bicyclists on the bridges was 4,892, a 44 percent drop from 8,762 riders in 1980. The city has far more bicycle lanes and paths than it did in 1980, but [Department of Transportation Commissioner Iris] Weinshall said bicycling was a less-attractive option because of the cold weather. The 1980 strike began on April 1 and lasted 11 days.
Gothamist hopes the study will be posted online. We can't wait for various sociological studies about the transit strike to come out as well - how the rise of connectivity enabled a percentage of the workforce to work from home and how the city came together (to share cabs, at least) for a few days. Here are Gothamist's Transit Strike posts and, of course, we would use any reason to post this great picture of people commuting by tram from Dan Dickinson .
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>>>the DoT also thinks that the restrictions on cars coming into the city may have been "too restrictive."
Heh, what did you expect from them. To the DOT, there are passengers, and there are DRIVERS.
www.forgotten-ny.com
"sociological"
Of course there's a drop in cyclists from a warm spring month (April 1980) to a cold winter month (Dec 2005). That's like comparing apples to oranges. The more relevant questions to ask are: did cycling increase during the strike compared to the week earlier or over the same time period in the previous year; and does the increase in cycling have any legs, that is, are more people continuing to cycle long after the strike?
Transportation Alternatives estimated that commuter cycling increased by 500% during the strike (link to pdf document), and according to the Daily News yesterday TA statistics show that rush hour ridership remains higher than pre-strike levels over the lower East River Bridges. It's not clear whether there's a temperature factor to the increased cycling - more people are riding bikes to work because it's been unseasonably warm.
hmm, who actually counts all the foot traffic on the bridge? hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. what a job..
Comparing bicycle traffic in warm April 1980 vs. cold December 2005 is like comparing apples to oranges. It's so obviously wrong that it's weird for DoT to be doing so.
Transportation Alternatives has more relevant numbers. According to TA, rush hour bike traffic across the bridges increased 500% during the strike compared to the week previous. As of last week, bike traffic was still up 12-36% over pre-strike levels.
As a matter of fact, I cross the Brooklyn Bridge every morning on my walk into work and this morning there was a guy on the BB with a little ticker-counter thingie (and an orange vest). He was clearly counting the amount of people crossing the bridge.
The absolute stupidest thing during the strike was not allowing cabs back into the city if they didn't have the minimum 4 passengers. It made no sense since the cabs were supposed to be helping to shuttle people around.