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Transit Strike 2005: More Walking Than Ever
By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 24, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 24, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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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.
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.
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.
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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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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