NYC's Subway Stories

New York City's subway network is a bustling artery that connects millions of New Yorkers to their daily lives. A new interactive map, Subway Stories, developed for the 2024 MTA Open Data Challenge, visualizes some of the stories and patterns that emerge from the rich flow of New York's subway ridership data. Drawing on comprehensive data from 2023, the visualization provides an unprecedented look at how the subway system functions as the lifeblood of the city, ferrying nearly four million passengers every day. 

The map is built on the MTA's Subway Origin-Destination Ridership dataset, a detailed collection of estimates that track the journeys of millions of riders. Although the MTA cannot directly record where each person exits, they use sophisticated algorithms to infer destinations based on where commuters start their next trip. This approach captures the complex network of journeys throughout the city, revealing the ways neighborhoods, work schedules, and events shape the daily rhythms of the subway system. By visualizing this information, Subway Stories paints a detailed portrait of New York's commuters, from the early morning rush of suburban workers pouring into Midtown to the late-night rides of performers and night-shift workers.

At the heart of the map are five stories: Fans at Flushing Meadows, A Tale of Five Chinatowns, Nightlife Along the L Train, The Weekend Shift, and How New York City Works. Each story looks at a subsection of the MTA data to reveal the unique rhythms and distinct communities that make New York's subway system so vibrant. From the surge of sports fans flocking to Flushing Meadows during the US Open, to the bustling activity of the city's diverse Chinatown neighborhoods, the narratives explore how different events, cultures, and industries shape the daily flow of commuters. Whether it’s the nightlife crowd hopping on the L train or essential workers heading to their weekend shifts, each story offers a glimpse into the heartbeat of the city, painting a detailed picture of how millions of people move through and interact with the subway system every day.

There are eight million stories in the naked city; these are only five of them. The map's creators are keen to learn if you also have a story to tell using the MTA's subway ridership data. If so - there is a short form that you can complete to share your story on the Subway Stories map.

If you are interested in creating your own scrollytelling data story then you might want to explore Mapbox's Interactive Storytelling: A low-code template to help you tell your map-based story. Alternatively you can start with Maplibre's Fly to a location based on scroll position demo map.