terra nullius

We’ve all done this: you just kinda stare at the subway map while you’re waiting for the train. Just stare. You’ve got time to kill, so you stare. And you think, “Oh, that’s where Jefferson St is”. Or “I wonder what Avenue X looks like?”. Or “There’s two DeKalb Av’s that are nowhere near each other”. Or “If this L train doesn’t show up I could take the 4 or the 5 to the J to A back to the L to get home?”. This staring and pondering is how people learn their subway options.

I'm impressed by the traction still has. The David and Goliath narrative is a tempting one, with open data being the clear winner. But when you consider who wins here--drivers, in a city where enforcement (the NYPD) favors drivers over non-drivers, it just doesn't hold up. Who loses? The handicapped people who would use these ramps? The NYPD gets to look magnanimous without ceding much, and they look good in relation to the (privileged) open data movement.

The original post on iquantny.