Cities Without Subways

The fruminator at the Frumination blog tries to answer the question: what would it take in terms of auto facilities to replace the morning rush hour carrying capacity of the NYC subway? The analysis (and accompanying image) provide some really striking numbers (84 copies of the Queens Midtown Tunnel, and 3 times Central Park in parking space). Great blog to subscribe to and explore further.

What's Capacity got to do with my City? (Frumination)

At best, it would take 167 inbound lanes, or 84 copies of the Queens Midtown Tunnel, to carry what the NYC Subway carries over 22 inbound tracks through 12 tunnels and 2 (partial) bridges. At worst, 200 new copies of 5th Avenue. Somewhere in the middle would be 67 West Side Highways or 76 Brooklyn Bridges. And this neglects the Long Island Railroad, Metro North, NJ Transit, and PATH systems entirely.

Of course, at 325 square feet per parking space, all these cars would need over 3.8 square miles of space to park, about 3 times the size of Central Park. At that point, who would want to go to Manhattan anyway?

Without the NYC Subway, I'm pretty sure this is what it would look like if we provided for to everyone commute by car:

via The Daily Dish