5 ms·

I just wonder, why do people in NYC bother to use cars? Bikes, subway and taxis are not enough?

by eddd 10y ago

notatoad 10y ago
i think a lot of them don't. but there's so many people in the region that even if a lot of people don't use cars, there's still a ton of cars.
nixos 10y ago
No. 1. NYC is _BIG_. It's 304 square miles, which is about 17 by 17 miles. There are many places where biking is too far. 2. Subways, in contrast to popular opinion, don't go everywhere. Mainly, unless you live in Manhattan, or that's the only place where you want to go, the Subway system is quite lousy. Going from the airport to Coney Island takes an hour and a half by subway (according to Google), rather than half an hour by car. Now what happens if you have what to do in Queens, Far Rockaway, or NJ? 3. Expensive and no point. Due to #2, most NYers have to have a car, if at least for those off days when they want to leave the city or what. Once you have the car, driving it is much cheaper than taxi.
- superuser2 10y ago
  #3 holds if and only if there is affordable parking. UberPOOL to downtown Chicago and back can be cheaper than parking there, particularly for a long time.
- markbao 10y ago
  > Going from the airport to Coney Island takes an hour and a half by subway (according to Google), rather than half an hour by car. Now what happens if you have what to do in Queens, Far Rockaway, or NJ? Unless if it's during commuting hours, in which case they're pretty much equal I'd say. > Due to #2, most NYers have to have a car Definitely not. 56% of NYC households don't have a car, the highest proportion in the US among cities. Compare to SF where 31% don't have a car. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_most_households_without_a_car https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_most_...
- galdosdi 10y ago
  17 miles is not a long bike ride unless you do not bike. 90min at a slow 11mph pace. A lot of people do 90min commutes. Scary car traffic is a much bigger reason people do not bike such routes, not distance. That said, for such distances a moped or ebike could be much faster, while still evading gridlock that would slow a car.
  - cc439 10y ago
    It's 17x17 miles in a straight line, something that is impossible given the geography of the city and its waterways. I just picked a random cross borough trip from the Aquarium to Yankee Stadium and the shortest bike-traversable route is 22.3 miles despite the 2 locations being just 17.7 miles apart as the crow flies. That is a pretty straight route as well.
    - galdosdi 10y ago
      More to the point, the average NYC car trip goes under 3 miles, the length of a pleasant 11 to 18 minute bike ride. It is OK to use more than one mode!
Mekkanox 10y ago
I think a majority of the motor vehicles are taxis, buses, private car services, and what does the most damage per vehicle - commercial vehicles. Box trucks take a much greater toll on roads than a bunch of average passenger cars.
- redblacktree 10y ago
  On the other hand, without those trucks, there would be nothing on the store shelves.
thatswrong0 10y ago
I'm curious about this too. In SF it can make sense to have a car even just for travel within the city because public transit to/from certain areas can take forever compared to cars. I was just dragging points around between random places on Manhattan and Brooklyn, and the difference in transit times between cars and public transit seemed pretty minimal almost everywhere I dragged the points to. In SF, there are certain well served areas where that is also the case.. but if you want to cut west from, say, Dogpatch to the Castro, it can take 2x-4x longer by public transit.
- nsp 10y ago
  Try Brooklyn to Brooklyn or between outer boroughs to see a larger disparity
NikolaeVarius 10y ago
The subway doesn't go everywhere, and NYC is so big that mass transit can take longer to get to places than to drive. Driving in NYC really isn't that bad as long as you don't drive mostly in midtown. 75% of the rest of the city is perfectly drivable. Secondly, the concentration of wealth/population is so high that even if a small minority of people drive, it still causes lots of congestion.
- kevindong 10y ago
  Conversely, the majority of the things you actually want/need are in that undrivable 25% .
bogomipz 10y ago
Well taxis are cars. Also a lot of traffic in Manhattan is commercial traffic - delivery trucks, contractors, ambulances, police cars. Those all pretty require cars.
lnanek2 10y ago
There are many people who find cars a better choice: models who don't like getting their feet dirty so won't do the first two. Real estate agents who often have to pick clients up at airports or take them to NJ or Long Island. People who live in NJ and work in NYC to save money and can time their car commute to avoid bridge traffic, so cars are quicker than hours on buses or transferring to the PATH, etc.. I dated the first two and was the last for many years.
ekianjo 10y ago
Have you ever taken the NY subway ? I have (but not in any recent history) and I remember it not being a very pleasant experience. But it may have changed.
JumpCrisscross 10y ago
Why people in (south-of-110th) Manhattan bother to own cars is beyond me. That said, the outer boroughs are (a) a long distance, in public-transit time, from the centre and (b) relatively unconnected by mass transit to the rest of Long Island and New Jersey (and to a lesser degree, Connecticut). As a Manhattanite who prefers cars (i.e. Ubers, Junos, et cetera), it comes down to a few factors. One, cars are door to door. Two, cars are air conditioned/heated. And Three, I can take calls (and naps) in cars.
- SapphireSun 10y ago
  For what it's worth regarding point 3, I spent all of high school sleeping on trains to and from school. That said, I'm a tall male, so no one ever bothered me.
gambiting 10y ago
I don't live in NYC, but I can tell you why I drive a car in a city - 1) I used to bike for years while I was at uni. It's dangerous, and not very enjoyable in a city. It's ok on a nice spring/autumn day, but in sweltering sun or in winter or in pouring rain it's downright miserable. 2) subway - nope, because I hate being packed so close to other people. It's frequently smelly and unpleasant. Same with buses. 3) taxi - expensive, and I don't like being driven around by other people, would much rather drive my own car. On the other hand, yes, driving somewhere is usually slower. But....I sit in my own clean environment, listening to podcasts or audiobooks, at the temperature that is fully controlled by me.

I just wonder, why do people in NYC bother to use cars? Bikes, subway and taxis are not enough?

by eddd 10y ago

I just wonder, why do people in NYC bother to use cars? Bikes, subway and taxis are not enough?

i think a lot of them don't. but there's so many people in the region that even if a lot of people don't use cars, there's still a ton of cars.

nixos 10y ago

No. 1. NYC is _BIG_. It's 304 square miles, which is about 17 by 17 miles. There are many places where biking is too far. 2. Subways, in contrast to popular opinion, don't go everywhere. Mainly, unless you live in Manhattan, or that's the only place where you want to go, the Subway system is quite lousy. Going from the airport to Coney Island takes an hour and a half by subway (according to Google), rather than half an hour by car. Now what happens if you have what to do in Queens, Far Rockaway, or NJ? 3. Expensive and no point. Due to #2, most NYers have to have a car, if at least for those off days when they want to leave the city or what. Once you have the car, driving it is much cheaper than taxi.

superuser2 10y ago
#3 holds if and only if there is affordable parking. UberPOOL to downtown Chicago and back can be cheaper than parking there, particularly for a long time.
markbao 10y ago
> Going from the airport to Coney Island takes an hour and a half by subway (according to Google), rather than half an hour by car. Now what happens if you have what to do in Queens, Far Rockaway, or NJ? Unless if it's during commuting hours, in which case they're pretty much equal I'd say. > Due to #2, most NYers have to have a car Definitely not. 56% of NYC households don't have a car, the highest proportion in the US among cities. Compare to SF where 31% don't have a car. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_most_households_without_a_car https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_most_...
galdosdi 10y ago
17 miles is not a long bike ride unless you do not bike. 90min at a slow 11mph pace. A lot of people do 90min commutes. Scary car traffic is a much bigger reason people do not bike such routes, not distance. That said, for such distances a moped or ebike could be much faster, while still evading gridlock that would slow a car.
- cc439 10y ago
  It's 17x17 miles in a straight line, something that is impossible given the geography of the city and its waterways. I just picked a random cross borough trip from the Aquarium to Yankee Stadium and the shortest bike-traversable route is 22.3 miles despite the 2 locations being just 17.7 miles apart as the crow flies. That is a pretty straight route as well.
  - galdosdi 10y ago
    More to the point, the average NYC car trip goes under 3 miles, the length of a pleasant 11 to 18 minute bike ride. It is OK to use more than one mode!

Mekkanox 10y ago

I think a majority of the motor vehicles are taxis, buses, private car services, and what does the most damage per vehicle - commercial vehicles. Box trucks take a much greater toll on roads than a bunch of average passenger cars.

redblacktree 10y ago
On the other hand, without those trucks, there would be nothing on the store shelves.

thatswrong0 10y ago

I'm curious about this too. In SF it can make sense to have a car even just for travel within the city because public transit to/from certain areas can take forever compared to cars. I was just dragging points around between random places on Manhattan and Brooklyn, and the difference in transit times between cars and public transit seemed pretty minimal almost everywhere I dragged the points to. In SF, there are certain well served areas where that is also the case.. but if you want to cut west from, say, Dogpatch to the Castro, it can take 2x-4x longer by public transit.

nsp 10y ago
Try Brooklyn to Brooklyn or between outer boroughs to see a larger disparity

NikolaeVarius 10y ago

The subway doesn't go everywhere, and NYC is so big that mass transit can take longer to get to places than to drive. Driving in NYC really isn't that bad as long as you don't drive mostly in midtown. 75% of the rest of the city is perfectly drivable. Secondly, the concentration of wealth/population is so high that even if a small minority of people drive, it still causes lots of congestion.

kevindong 10y ago
Conversely, the majority of the things you actually want/need are in that undrivable 25% .

bogomipz 10y ago

Well taxis are cars. Also a lot of traffic in Manhattan is commercial traffic - delivery trucks, contractors, ambulances, police cars. Those all pretty require cars.

lnanek2 10y ago

There are many people who find cars a better choice: models who don't like getting their feet dirty so won't do the first two. Real estate agents who often have to pick clients up at airports or take them to NJ or Long Island. People who live in NJ and work in NYC to save money and can time their car commute to avoid bridge traffic, so cars are quicker than hours on buses or transferring to the PATH, etc.. I dated the first two and was the last for many years.

ekianjo 10y ago

Have you ever taken the NY subway ? I have (but not in any recent history) and I remember it not being a very pleasant experience. But it may have changed.

JumpCrisscross 10y ago

Why people in (south-of-110th) Manhattan bother to own cars is beyond me. That said, the outer boroughs are (a) a long distance, in public-transit time, from the centre and (b) relatively unconnected by mass transit to the rest of Long Island and New Jersey (and to a lesser degree, Connecticut). As a Manhattanite who prefers cars (i.e. Ubers, Junos, et cetera), it comes down to a few factors. One, cars are door to door. Two, cars are air conditioned/heated. And Three, I can take calls (and naps) in cars.

SapphireSun 10y ago
For what it's worth regarding point 3, I spent all of high school sleeping on trains to and from school. That said, I'm a tall male, so no one ever bothered me.

gambiting 10y ago

I don't live in NYC, but I can tell you why I drive a car in a city - 1) I used to bike for years while I was at uni. It's dangerous, and not very enjoyable in a city. It's ok on a nice spring/autumn day, but in sweltering sun or in winter or in pouring rain it's downright miserable. 2) subway - nope, because I hate being packed so close to other people. It's frequently smelly and unpleasant. Same with buses. 3) taxi - expensive, and I don't like being driven around by other people, would much rather drive my own car. On the other hand, yes, driving somewhere is usually slower. But....I sit in my own clean environment, listening to podcasts or audiobooks, at the temperature that is fully controlled by me.