

How I Walked Every Block in Manhattan in 10 Weeks (2005) - scottmcdot
http://linkage.cpmc.columbia.edu/Manhattan_Walk/Walk.html

======
danso
This piece of trivia was funny to me:

> _Most shocking discovery: The variation in the prices of Dunkin Donuts in
> different neighborhoods. I always order an extra large Vanilla coffee, and
> the price within Manhattan ranges from as low as $1.64 to as high as $2.57.
> In one neighborhood, I even saw two Dunkin Donuts within 0.25 mile of one
> another, both in a similarly depressed neighborhood, at which the price
> differed by 58 cents! Also shocking is how some of them add tax on top of
> the menu price while others do not. Amazing... I suggest the Dunkin Donuts
> index might be slightly more sensitive in general than the McDonald 's Big
> Mac index so often used to compare cost of living to salary in different
> places!!!_

Here's a map of Starbucks, McD's, and Dunkin Donuts in New York, based off of
the city's health inspection records:

[http://www.smalldatajournalism.com/projects/one-
offs/fusion-...](http://www.smalldatajournalism.com/projects/one-offs/fusion-
doh-map/)

Dunkin Donuts are so uniformly spread out (Starbucks is heavily clustered in
lower Manhattan) I've always thought it'd be interesting to use them as some
kind of marker of comparison...either between neighborhoods or between cities.
I never thought the different franchises would have wildly varying prices.

~~~
__z
Dunkin Donuts is so clustered thoough. It is one of those places that is
really popular and common in some areas and almost unheard of in others.

Dunkin Donuts across from another Dunkin Donuts
[http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/1xwnxf/only_in_new_en...](http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/1xwnxf/only_in_new_england_would_there_be_a_dunkin/)

------
jwise0
An analogous feat [1] is being attempted in Pittsburgh by Tom7. He has lots of
interesting graphics that he automatically generates from the data [2], which
data-driven folks might find interesting, anyway. (Tom7 has been previously
seen on HackerNews for other things, too. [3] [4])

[1] [http://pac.tom7.org](http://pac.tom7.org) [2]
[http://pac.tom7.org/graphics.shtml](http://pac.tom7.org/graphics.shtml) [3]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8722192](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8722192)
[4]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5526670](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5526670)

------
pimlottc
Very cool! I've also kept track of all the streets I've biked or walked down
in both Chicago and San Francisco, although I didn't set about it as
rigorously as the author, nor did I ever complete them. But it is a fun
exercise in motivating you to get out there and to see parts of the city you
might otherwise miss.

The difficulty is finding new routes all the time; at first, it's pretty easy,
but then you start needing to go further and further out of your way to hit
new streets, and the directions get more and more complicated. I have often
thought about making an app to do help you with this, but I don't know much
about mapping data and how to best store and calculate routes.

------
busterarm
Anyone else in NY inspired to do this? Most work days I'm only getting in 10k
steps but I frequently break 25k and am looking to do that more regularly as
I've got about as much weight to lose.

The weather is nice. This would be a cool thing to do with a group.

~~~
Pellepelle3
I might be interested

------
pavel_lishin
> _Most steps in a single day: 72,351 (48 miles) on December 18_

Nice; The Great Saunter is a 32 mile trip, and it took my friend 12 hours to
complete it. Hard to imagine walking a full 48, especially in the middle of
winter.

~~~
selectodude
With the right clothing, I could see it being easier in mid December. Low
temps (but not bitter) which make it easy to regulate body temp, and likely no
snow.

48 miles is a long way no matter how you dice it though. I couldn't do that.

------
z3t4
I'm kinda disappointed that he didn't develop an algorithm on how to do it in
the least amount of steps.

Good work though and gratulations on the wight loss!

------
atap

      > Now, On to the The South Bronx!!!
    

...and he was never heard from again.

