Sites Compete To Get You From Point A To B (Sans Car)

Figuring out how to get where you are going, without driving, in a city with as many options as our own can be a chore. After very little time in the city your average New Yorker (imported or native) normally has a pretty good grasp of their basic routes but beyond that things can quickly get hazy. Enter the internet. Just like Mapquest and Google Maps simplified driving directions, the past two years has seen a cottage industry of municipal directions services pop up. The Times today takes a look at three of them, two of which we'd, tellingly, never heard of: HopStop, Trips123 and PublicRoutes.

All three sites have their ups and downs, and all have different methods of offering directions. To prove the point the Times asked each site how to get from the Empire State Building to Macy's in Brooklyn:

HopStop provided what seemed to be the most direct route, instructing users to take a city bus from the Empire State Building, at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue, to the subway station at 34th Street and Seventh Avenue. From there, it told riders to take the No. 2 or No. 3 train to the Hoyt Street Station in Fulton Mall in Brooklyn, about a block from Macy’s.

PublicRoutes guided users to the subway station at 34th Street and Avenue of the Americas, and on the Brooklyn-bound B train to the station at DeKalb and Flatbush Avenues. That left users with a four-block walk to Macy’s.

Trips123 directed users to the same subway station at 34th Street, but said to take the Brooklyn-bound Q train to DeKalb and Flatbush Avenues. (The B and the Q both stop at DeKalb and Flatbush, but use different routes through Lower Manhattan.)

Interesting... As for us, when we've got a random destination we generally will use HopStop, mostly because it offers to text an edited set of directions to your cellphone (which we've found is also a great way to not forget that esoteric address in Queens). Do you use any of these services? Which do you prefer?

Paping Soap Box Derby, Brooklyn Heights, 7/15/06 by Erena Kittenclaw via Contribute. See her full set of Derby photos here.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Garth Johnston in Arts & Entertainment on July 16, 2006 12:43 PM

Comments [rss]

James Kirby

Public Routes seem to work better in Manhattan, they need to refine their text. Hopstop is a close 2nd. However, if you are traveling into Manhattan from NJ, L.I. or Westchester www.publicroutes.com is the only way to go.

J.K.

Ms. B.

Hopstop is great. I hadn't heard of the other two either.

thfs

Trips 123 is mostly "good" for delay and traffic information. Unfortunately, their subway delays are frequently wrong and/or taken down before the delay is over, so it's not that useful.

maisnon

Hopstop definitely.

I like their text message option.

You can also pick if you want to take subway only, bus only, bus and subway combination which is helpful for brooklyn.

You can exclude a subway line from your search as well (which comes very handy for those week-end subway changes issues.)

J

Ha, I read that article and all I could think was "Why would anyone want to go from the Empire State Building to Macy's in Brooklyn? Macy's in Manhattan is only a block away and the Macy's in Brooklyn sucks!"

A.R.

Hopstop baby

kevin Bracken

The M34 is the slowest bus in the city, averaging 3.4 mph according to Gothamist. HopStop loses points in my book for failing to realize it's probably much quicker to walk unless the bus is right there when you begin your trip.