[HN Gopher] Subway Stories
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Subway Stories
Author : gaws
Score : 61 points
Date : 2025-01-13 15:10 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (subwaystories.nyc)
(TXT) w3m dump (subwaystories.nyc)
| afavour wrote:
| This is wonderful. It's very easy to take a data set like they've
| used and create a very stale, matter-of-fact accounting of tos
| and froms. Instead they go through and explain the _whys_ , the
| narratives that make the subway the essential arteries of NYC.
|
| Even as someone that's been in the city a long time I found
| something new to learn, like the number of people commuting from
| outside Brooklyn to downtown Brooklyn every day. Fascinating.
| josefritzishere wrote:
| A blank page?
| SirFatty wrote:
| A closeup of a subway tile.
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| Looks like we hugged it: https://subway-
| stories-sql-server.fly.dev/mapbox-load Error
| checking mapbox load: Error: HTTP error! status: 500
| volkk wrote:
| i don't get it. doesn't fly autoscale? i thought the point of
| services like these is that it makes it super easy to account
| for traffic spikes. or is this not fly.io?
| tytho wrote:
| Fly has a form of auto-scaling. You have to provision the
| max amount of machines then you configure them to auto-
| sleep. It's possible that the creator didn't anticipate
| this much traffic or didn't want to pre-pay for all those
| sleeping machines.
| archy_ wrote:
| That's just pre-provisioning by another name, auto-
| scaling implies on-the-fly provisioning
|
| E: I can't even load the fly.dev website, it keeps timing
| out. I guess they forgot to pre-provision/under-
| provisioned it
| nightpool wrote:
| No, they have auto-scaling as well. Not sure what GP was
| talking about: https://fly.io/docs/reference/autoscaling/
|
| However, it's understandable that some people wouldn't
| necessarily want to pay for high amounts of max machines.
|
| Apparently it doesn't auto-scale automatically either,
| you have to opt into it.
| Citizen_Lame wrote:
| It's dead!
| MateGreat wrote:
| Can't get it to load... an intriguing title though to me as a
| former New Yorker.
| crearo wrote:
| HN kiss of death
| FlacksonFive wrote:
| Love the student metrocard as the favicon :)
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| In case this is hugged, this was a submission to the MTA's Open
| Data Challenge in November that won 'most creative storytelling'.
|
| > _Subway Stories is a series of vignettes that analyze open data
| to understand how New Yorkers work, enjoy themselves, and stay
| connected. The interactive visualization allows users to explore
| how different groups in NYC travel and effectively uses a complex
| dataset to glean insight into how folks move about the city_
|
| An article: https://www.untappedcities.com/new-map-of-one-
| billion-nyc-su...
| chasil wrote:
| Chicago actually had an "El Stories" show that captured and
| performed memories that were collected from the audience and
| elsewhere.
|
| It didn't return after the pandemic.
|
| https://www.waltzingmechanics.org/el-stories-archives
| cypherpunks01 wrote:
| Anyone remember the Metrocard bending trick that worked in the
| '90s til sometime early-mid 2000s?
|
| You'd just have to find an empty value Metrocard (that wasn't
| previously bent for this trick), make a partial vertical bend in
| the magstripe track in a certain area, then swipe a few times and
| the turnstile would let you in on the swipe following display of
| the "Swipe again _at this turnstile_ " message.
|
| I think it had something to do with causing difficulty writing to
| the magstripe track, and the system generously allowing entry if
| it couldn't determine the last write state of the card, before
| the whole card got revoked? Or something along those lines.
| robotmlg wrote:
| Such a popular trick that it got a song written about it
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFLjNi2_qnk
| burningChrome wrote:
| I had friends who used this technique when they were living in
| NYC for a contract gig and one of the devs showed him.
|
| Apparently the catch was you had to have a "two-trip" card. The
| other catch was these were not that readily available and were
| only distributed by specific social agencies. My buddy got one
| when he applied for SNAP benefits and said he needed the card
| for transport to his gig.
|
| Once he had the card, he had his co-worker bend it for him and
| he said in the year he was working there, he never had to buy a
| metro card and saved quite a bit with the hack. Apparently it
| was still working as late as 2017 (The MTA never fixed the
| issue) but Metrocards were completely phased out last year as
| OMNY took over completely after starting in 2019.
| frenchmajesty wrote:
| Site is bugged and giving a 500 Internal Error.
| fitsumbelay wrote:
| I'm getting 500 errors on what looks some important payload but
| based on the comments I'm looking forward to checking this out
| ...
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(page generated 2025-01-13 23:01 UTC)