194 COMMISSION ON BUILDING DISTRICTS 



Anything that would tend to restrict the available factory area in cen- 

 tral Manhattan and to increase the residential areas in central Manhattan 

 would undoubtedly tend to decrease excessive congestion on the rapid tran- 

 sit lines, especially if the residential area is located within a short distance. 

 It might intensify congestion if a segregated manufacturing district was 

 more than walking distance from a segregated residential section. 



I think that the location of homes within walking distance of workshops 

 is usually the condition abroad which makes the per capita ride so much 

 less. The per capita ride in 1910 on the rapid transit lines was 161, to-day 

 it is 176. The total per capita on all lines in 1910 was 321. To-day it is 358. 

 These are fare passengers. When you consider the transfer riders the 

 figures enormously increase. There is no other intensity of riding com- 

 parable with ours anywhere else in the world. 



On the average an individual rides 358 times every year. That means 

 practically everybody rides once every day. It is an indication of the in- 

 tensity of the use of the municipal transit lines which is very much greater 

 than any other lines, simply because of the general conditions that indus- 

 tries are not located near home sections for the workers so that many may 

 walk. 



Length of walk from subway stations 



The average person will walk about one-quarter of a mile to a rapid 

 transit station. I don't believe that you will get many people to walk half 

 a mile to a station. That is particularly during the rush hour. During non- 

 business hours they will easily walk more. There are very few people 

 compelled to walk more than half a mile in Manhattan or Bronx to get to a 

 station. 



Capacity of dual subway system 



On the dual system we have doubled transit facilities and by doubling 

 the facilities we have trebled the capacity and this has been done chiefly 

 by utilizing the two-way movement through business centers. I mean by 

 this that the trunk line that is built through a business center has a branch 

 or feeders at both ends of it, so that all trains originating, we will say, in the 

 Bronx in the morning come down town fully loaded, go through the busi- 

 ness center, lose their loads, go over to Brooklyn, fill up and come back 

 through the business center again, so that we have a four track trunk line 

 through the congested part of the city where most of the people want to go 

 every track of which is utilized by a fully loaded train. 



There are twelve tracks in the existing rapid transit system, five utilized 

 by empty trains and seven by full trains. When I say the existing rapid 

 transit system, I do not mean to include the Brooklyn elevated lines, be- 

 cause they are not city transit lines — they simply serve Brooklyn. They 

 do not bring people through the business center. I mean Manhattan ele- 

 vated lines and the subway lines. Under the dual system we have increased 

 the capacity to nineteen tracks, five of them empty and fourteen utilized by 

 full trains. In other words, we have doubled the number of full train move- 

 ments through the business center. We still have a potential capacitv for 

 increase by running some more branches to Brooklyn without building 

 hardly another foot of subway through Manhattan. 



