Transit Battle NYC: Pretty Maps for the Subway, Bus and Rail

January 5, 2015 8:52 AM

Transit Battle NYC: Pretty Maps for the Subway, Bus and Rail
People in New York love the subway way more than the bus. Sure, it's okay, the bus is confusing, but what if they knew all the secret places the bus could take them faster than the subway? And there was a reaaaally nice interactive map to go along with it?

A hundred and one years ago I launched another pretty fun transit time site right here, but that was like the stone age to today's jetpacks-and-laser-beams future!

Role: Creator

posted by soma lkzx (8 comments total)

I've only been to New York City once, but just as a giant public transit nerd, I've spent a few minutes dorking out over the site. This is an incredibly impressive project.
posted by lunch at 11:19 AM on January 5, 2015

I'm just going to have to make one for every city so we can all be covered.
posted by soma lkzx at 12:02 PM on January 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is fantastic and beautiful. How did you end up calculating transit times for the bus? Just schedules or schedules + traffic data?
posted by ignignokt at 2:41 PM on January 5, 2015

This is very nice looking. I'm a big fan of hexagons!

Here's a weird thing: If I say "bus vs bus" or "subway vs subway" it isn't all "sameish"
posted by aubilenon at 8:05 PM on January 5, 2015

Oh never mind it switches over to just raw times if I do that. I didn't notice that.
posted by aubilenon at 8:06 PM on January 5, 2015

How did you end up calculating transit times for the bus? Just schedules or schedules + traffic data?

Just schedules! I figure if the MTA has planned out when the bus is supposed to stop it shouldn't be that far from the truth. ....which might be giving them a little too much credit, but so it goes.
posted by soma lkzx at 9:57 PM on January 5, 2015

I like this. I work in transport planning and I'd love to see something similar for London.
What kind of licence is the code under?

There are some interesting edge cases going on with Bus vs Subway where the map jumps from same-ish to 90+minutes faster, for example, if you're in Freshkills Park this happens in the middle of Far Rockaway.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 8:40 AM on January 6, 2015

What kind of licence is the code under?

Nothing as of yet, I guess, but eventually MIT! I have another couple projects in the pipeline for the next few weeks that are going to use it, so it'll get cleaner as I go along. I'll probably officially release it in a month or so.

There are some interesting edge cases going on with Bus vs Subway where the map jumps from same-ish to 90+minutes faster, for example, if you're in Freshkills Park this happens in the middle of Far Rockaway.

Half of the equation is that I included ferries under "subway" since you can't get to Staten Island by traditional rail. You can get to the Rockaways nice and quick that way, I guess, although the jump from same-ish to 90min is really strange.
posted by soma lkzx at 9:06 AM on January 6, 2015