Yesterday, senior editor Kim Velsey of the New York Observer published a very interesting article titled The Social Commute: How the Big Schlep Is Changing the Way New Yorkers Live in which she investigates how we have outgrown our transportation systems, and why it got to be this bad.
[…] as the city transformed into an exceedingly safe and exceedingly expensive place to live over the past two decades, it’s not only the crime and the pervasive decay that have fallen away, but the close proximity, creating a social commute that echoes and exacerbates a work commute that, at more than six hours a week, is the longest in the nation. People have always traveled to see their friends, of course, but rarely has it been so frequent or far to qualify as a commute. Subway ridership is at its highest numbers since the 1940s—1.75 billion riders last year—and it’s been surging on nights and weekends, with some of the biggest increases coming from Brooklyn and Queens.
The full article is a long read, but a good one.
via Observer
Matt Coneybeare
Editor in Chief
Matt enjoys exploring the City's with his partner and son. He is an avid marathon runner, and spends most of his time eating, running, and working on cool stuff.
Something wrong with this post? Let us know!
