Map of the Day: Subway Accessibility

Adam put together a nice map showing how far various neighborhoods are from the subway. He didn't add a legend, but our guess is that green means 5 blocks, yellow means 10 blocks, and orange means 15 blocks. Looking at the map, it's hard not to be impressed by the great mass transit coverage we have in the city. Except for dead zones in Eastern and Central Queens, and Southeast Brooklyn, almost all of NYC is within walking distance of a subway. If you throw buses into the mix, we probably have 100% mass transit coverage within five blocks of any home or business. That's not bad!

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By Jake Dobkin in Miscellaneous on December 18, 2006 11:00 AM

Comments [rss]

James Frey

Hey Gothamisters - stop forsaking Staten Island, the way the MTA has. Are you guys from Pennsylvania or something? There are FIVE BOROUGHS!!!

tricker

i wish i could board the train that flies 200 feet over my apartment at delancey and fdr drive.

Adam Brock

The bands are in 1/4 mile increments.

It's true, I should have created it based on stops, rather than lines. The way the map is now, it makes it look like where I live in Williamsburg is a step away from the train, when it's actually a good 10 minute walk.

WT Economist

(If you figure in bicycling in addition to walking, subway access is even more accessible. For this to be even better, though, the City needs to provide more bike parking at key subway stations.)

I agree. For example, much of SE Brooklyn is within a short bike ride (but long walk) from the Kings Highway subway station on the Brighton Line. If they were to dig out a distance under the tracks, they could have a bike lock-up monitored by station personnel, with only those with a bike -- or whose Metrocard indicates they deposited one earlier -- allowed in.

Michael

Poster #7 is correct. The coloring should look more knobby... as opposed to cylindrical...

matt

hmm, i didn't know half of Governors Island was within 15 blocks of a subway.....

diriculous

The map is just wrong, the area is color coded by how far it is from the subway line, not the subway stop, so nice work but next time try harder.....

Tara

Yes, you may be close to a subway station, but in the outer boroughs you may wait quite a long time for that train. I used to live near Fordham Road in the Bronx, and a trip to, say, Columbus Circle could be an easy 90 minutes one-way on the weekend because the trains came so infrequently. (Or if there's track work, maybe the train doesn't come at all.) The public transportation system works very well in Manhattan, but the Bronx, at least, always seems to get the shaft.

BQE

Of course, you're all conveniently ignoring Staten Island in your congratulatory comments. It's okay, it wouldn't be the first time, but you should notice that most of SI is inaccessible unless you have a car. This is leading to a horrible situation there, too bad more people aren't interested in doing something about it.

subwaybound

i'm a little confused by all the abundance of maps that don't say anything. all you have to do is look at an mta map, look up hopstop.com, and figure out how many blocks you have to walk. wouldn't make sense to anyone that downtown is most accessible? and brooklyn has a lot of stops? this just looks like an mta map all light up in green.

Simon

Fifteen blocks from a subway station is not "subway-accessible." Even ten blocks is stretching it.

Kojak

True, but what happens when your on your way home, come out of the subway station only to find your lock's been clipped and your bike gone? OR you find your tires slashed? Or seat rubbed on with poop.

Ahh then its going to be a long walk home...

joe

If you figure in bicycling in addition to walking, subway access is even more accessible. For this to be even better, though, the City needs to provide more bike parking at key subway stations, which means taking away some motor vehicle parking at times. Of course, bicycling needs to be made much safer too.