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I recently returned from a trip to NYC, and loved the idea of the subway system. I went with a friend who figured out how to use it. I didn't pay much attention to the details.
I am wondering how natives learn the system and what percentage of the population is subway savvy.
Are there people who don't know it at all? Some who know it a little bit? Experts?
Or are you taught how to navigate it in school? Or by your parents? At what age do kids and teens use it (didn't see many of either)?
Just basically interested in the learning and use of it.
As someone who moved here the first time in 2010, it was easy to navigate to where I needed to go, but then I started branching out and made it a thing to visit each neighborhood. That quickly had me remembering the subway maps, on top of LIRR, Path, NJTransit, and Metro North lines. I later branched out to visiting certain suburbs cause of friends or places like Round 1, traveling as far as mid Suffolk County, Beacon, New Haven in Connecticut, Middletown in Orange County, and Trenton in New Jersey.
For me it was more exploratory once I had the means to do so. It helped defeat stereotypes of the Bronx being all bad and the concept of what's really far (City Island takes FOREVER to get to from downtown), killed the sense of Staten Island being as suburban as people make it, and introduced me to neighborhoods like Forest Hills and Riverdale of which I still find as the most pleasant neighborhoods to drift through for me.
Life still pretty much is just 3-10 blocks from my residence and workplace, but if I need to go somewhere, I don't even think about looking at the map. I might need to look up the weekender to figure out what the MTA took out, but if I need to get to say Bayside, where I'm going on Thursday, I'll take the F/M to 42, 7 to Flushing - Main St, and the Q12/13 or Port Washington LIRR if I'm running low on time. It's pretty much second nature.
What do you mean by subway savvy? Do you mean how to get around using subway efficiently? Or do you mean knowing how to evade the date? Or do you mean knowing where to look for travel information? Or do you mean all of the above
I personally say you can be really good with subway if you care about time management, and constant learning.
What do you mean by subway savvy? Do you mean how to get around using subway efficiently? Or do you mean knowing how to evade the date? Or do you mean knowing where to look for travel information? Or do you mean all of the above
I personally say you can be really good with subway if you care about time management, and constant learning.
Savvy means just learning/knowing where you are going and how to get there from anywhere.
I recently returned from a trip to NYC, and loved the idea of the subway system. I went with a friend who figured out how to use it. I didn't pay much attention to the details.
I am wondering how natives learn the system and what percentage of the population is subway savvy.
Are there people who don't know it at all? Some who know it a little bit? Experts?
Or are you taught how to navigate it in school? Or by your parents? At what age do kids and teens use it (didn't see many of either)?
Just basically interested in the learning and use of it.
Parents usually teach you. Kids usually start taking the subway at 9 alot of the times, I've seen it myself. Kids in NYC don't take the school bus to school only from grades Kindergarten to grade 6 but after that you take the subway/bus and receive a student metro card. The subway is not as hard as you think. Since most people in NYC take the train/bus to school, work, shop, hang out etc, kids pick it up relatively quickly.. For me it was different because I grew up living under a elevated line and had a fond interest in trains so I started studying the maps at age 3.
Parents usually teach you. Kids usually start taking the subway at 9 alot of the times, I've seen it myself. Kids in NYC don't take the school bus to school only from grades Kindergarten to grade 6 but after that you take the subway/bus and receive a student metro card. The subway is not as hard as you think. Since most people in NYC take the train/bus to school, work, shop, hang out etc, kids pick it up relatively quickly.. For me it was different because I grew up living under a elevated line and had a find interest in trains so I started studying the maps at age 3.
Wow. Age three? That is amazing! I love maps so maybe I should start studying.
I wonder HOW parents teach the kids - show them routes, explain the levels, show them maps? Other?
I love that kids start at age nine, but I thought I had read of some parent getting hassled for allowing their kids to be "free range" (a concept I totally believe in and how I was raised).
Wow. Age three? That is amazing! I love maps so maybe I should start studying.
I wonder HOW parents teach the kids - show them routes, explain the levels, show them maps? Other?
I love that kids start at age nine, but I thought I had read of some parent getting hassled for allowing their kids to be "free range" (a concept I totally believe in and how I was raised).
Usually it's just them showing them the train that takes them home and to places that they go to on the regular, most of the time people just learn from word of mouth and experiences going to places.
I don't know much about the parents getting hassled thing but I have seen young kids taking their brothers/sisters to school on the train.
It's not that hard to learn, there are even apps to help you out
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