Hub-Bound Travel in the Tri-State New York Metropolitan Region

Manhattan’s central business district has retained its magnetism as an employment center over the past four years though its attraction for shoppers and others coming for non-work purposes appears to have declined slightly.

On a typical business day in 1960, 3,349,000 persons entered Manhattan south of 61st Street, some 36,000 or 1 percent more than on a similar day in 1956. By con­trast, there was a 10 percent decline in the numbers entering the central business district between 1948 and 1956. The high point of entries to the hub wait recorded in 1948.

Time of Entry

The increase in entries over the past four years occurred entirely during the three morning rush hours, 7 to 10 a.m. In fact, the number entering before and after the rush hours declined by 36,000 (2.1 percent) while 72,000 more persons entered during the three rush hours (4.6 percent).

Half of all the people who entered the hub did so in the three hours between 7 and 10 a.m. A quarter entered in the single hour from 8 to 9 a.m. The 1956 to 1960 increase was slightly greater in the two secondary rush hours (7-8 and 9-10 a.m.) than in the peak hour (8 to 9 a.m.), 5 percent compared to 4 percent.

Mode of Travel

Travel to the hub was overwhelmingly by public transportation. Subway, railroad, bus and ferry riders accounted for 72 percent of total 24-hour entries, 86 percent of 7-10 a.m. entries and 90 percent of 8-9 a.m. entries. Even during the 21 off-peak hours between 10 and 7 a.m., more persons entered by public transportation than by private car, taxi and truck - 993,000 to 729,000.

Public transportation, however, lost patronage in the past four years while more persons entered by automobile and taxi. The railroads lost some passengers even in the peak hour. The two rail transit systems (the New York City subways and the Hudson and Manhattan Tubes) and the buses gained rush-hour riders but lost more riders off-peak than they gained from 7 to 10 a.m. The number of entries by auto­mobile increased at a somewhat faster rate during the secondary rush hours (7-8 and 9-10 a.m.) than during the 8-9 a.m. peak hour or the 21 off-peak hours. One quarter of the total increase in automobile-taxi arrivals occurred between 7 and 10 a.m. Automobile riders constituted 9.3 percent of 8-9 a.m. arrivals, 16 percent of 7-8 and 9-10 a.m. arrivals, but 38.5 percent of the off-peak 10 a.m. to 7 a.m. arrivals.

Sector of Entry

Of all the gateways to the Manhattan central business district (see Chart 1), only those from Brooklyn showed a drop in entries in 1960, and there only after the morning rush hours. The biggest increases in entries by sector were from north of 61st Street and from Queens. In the off-peak hours only Queens showed a significant increase in entries.