Make your NYC commute easier with this trick
Our planning, traveling and day-to-day transport patterns don't change that much from one person to another. Usually, before a meeting, we double check the location we need to be at and pick our choice of transportation — bike, subway, walking, taxi or bus. If it’s a taxi, there’s usually no problems involved, but in other cases some participation on our end is needed. While I (and most of you) rely heavily on Google Maps and similar apps to get me where I need to be, they prove to be really lousy in those micro interactions where time is of essence. Let me give you an example.
I’m at the office and have a meeting in 45 minutes on the other side of the city. I look up the location details and checkout the suggested routes. Navigating to the subway is easy, as well as getting off at the right stop. Here comes the part where it get’s more complex — exiting the train and reaching the final location. The subway stations usually have several exits and picking the right one is already a challenge.
We have the map in our heads and we've memorised it visually. We know that our final destination is a few blocks to the right — which would mean we need to go east.
Where’s east? I just have to go east, and I'll be there in a matter of minutes.
There is a million cars, signs and people on this street. My iPhone is showing different directions if I hold it parallel or vertical to the ground. It constantly keeps changing. Argh! I have zero faith in it. OK, let’s open up the compass app. Yes, yes, I’m doing that weird motion with my hand. One more circle. Hurts a bit…
Ah, north! That — a — away!“
This key piece of information could solve 80% of navigation problems: which side of the world I’m facing at any given moment.
The situation in NYC
Being new in NYC, I've quickly tried to see if there are patterns, and structure the layout in my mind. Luckily, the city is divided in a grid made out of streets and avenues (the city’s grid is more than 200 years old). While avenues connect the North and the South, the streets are laid out go East to West. Most of the streets are one-way streets, which means that knowing The Way could help us to orient.
Here’s the big (tiny) trick regarding numbered streets:
Even Streets run East, Odd Streets run West.
Several exceptions (as always) undermine this. Most wider streets carry two-way traffic, as do a few of the narrow ones. What’s also good to remember is that streets’ names change from West to East (for instance, East 10th Street to West 10th Street) at Broadway below 8th Street, and at Fifth Avenue from 8th Street and above.
With this information in mind, it’s simple to figure out where North is, and thus navigate the city with more ease. No more going in the wrong direction for a few blocks, losing precious minutes.
Let me know what tricks you use in your daily NYC commute.
As of September 2014, I started working in NYC.
Let’s get together for coffee!
This entry is part 9.5 of my New Year’s (not New York) resolution project.
Read all of the entries here.
This story got picked up by Business Insider. Thanks for the republish.
