Every year, New Yorkers take more than a billion trips on the subway. Using data from the MTA, we mapped out how riders flow between stations at every hour. Each story explores a slice of city life.

Scroll down to keep reading, or click the horizontal lines on the left to jump between stories. The captions at the bottom explain what's on the map for each page. Click the info (ℹ) icon at the top right for more details.

If New York was a country, it would have the 10th largest economy in the world. An astronomical number of people flood into the city at rush hour every weekday to go to work.

Economic activity is concentrated in the city's multiple central business districts. Midtown Manhattan is the densest business hub in the world, and the Financial District is not far behind. Downtown Brooklyn has grown significantly in recent decades, but still comes in a distant third. Let's take a look at each of them.

First, it's helpful to know the main commuter gateways that bring suburbanites into the city. We can see them by viewing where the most people enter the subway system at rush hour.

Penn Station is the busiest station complex in the Western Hemisphere, serving half a million passengers daily. It has both commuter and intercity routes.

Grand Central Terminal is the main hub for travelers from Westchester and Connecticut.

The PATH train runs from nearby Jersey City, Hoboken, and Newark. It drops commuters off in several locations including 33rd St and the World Trade Center.

Finally, the largest spike is the Port Authority.

The Port Authority Bus Terminal is the busiest bus terminal in the world, with 225,000 passengers passing through on a typical weekday. Our contributor, Marc Zitelli, recounts his experience commuting to Jersey from the PABT while working on a political campaign.

"The foot traffic was insane, like difficult to even move at points. But it was nice that I always got a seat on the bus, since everybody was coming into the city at 8 AM on weekdays, not leaving the city."

Midtown is the most popular destination for commuters arriving at the Port Authority, followed by the Financial District and Downtown Brooklyn, reflecting the prominence of these business districts.

Midtown is massive, and its busiest stations dominated by the commuter gateway hubs. We can look at Lexington Avenue/51 St as a representative example.

Workers are coming from all over the city, especially from high-density areas with a direct trip to the station, like Jackson Heights in Queens. The largest local spike, 86 St, represents commuters from Yorkville, the most densely populated neighborhood in the city.

A large share of riders appear to be traveling from outside New York, with spikes at Penn Station and the PABT. In fact, 20% of the city's workforce commutes from out of town!

When we look at ridership to the Financial District, anchored by the Fulton St station, the pattern is strikingly different. By far the largest share of riders are coming from Grand Central, dwarfing those from Penn Station and the Port Authority.

One explanation for this inbalance is that Grand Central brings commuters from wealthy suburbs like Scarsdale in Westchester and New Canaan, Connecticut. The completion of the Grand Central–LIRR connection in January 2023 has drawn Long Islanders away from Penn Station as well.

Those demographics could be more likely to work in high-paying finance jobs. In addition, many New Jersey commuters may find the World Trade Center a more convenient stop.

Many of Brooklyn's downtown offices are a short walk from the Jay St-MetroTech stop. The MetroTech Center itself was recently renamed Brooklyn Commons, after it was purchased by the investment firm Brookfield.

There's still plenty of out-of-town traffic to Downtown Brooklyn, from the Port Authority, Penn Station, and the PATH train. But this business district draws a higher proportion of local commuters than Manhattan's larger corridors.

It serves as a hub for workers across the borough, from Park Slope to Bay Ridge to East New York. A number of people come all the way from Queens. Most of them must transfer through Manhattan, due to the lack of interborough connections.

"They go in the morning for Dim Sum," explains Anna Li, 28, when I ask why hundreds of people flock from her neighborhood in far Brooklyn to Chinatown, Manhattan at 8 a.m. every Saturday.

Bensonhurst, where Anna has lived since college, and Sunset Park, where she grew up, house the two largest Chinese communities in Brooklyn. Although younger generations of Chinese are choosing more and more to settle away from the din of Manhattan, the original Chinatown is still a crucial gathering place for the community.

In her high school years, Anna joined the Saturday shuffle, taking the D train to Grand St to play volleyball in Seward Park. Many of her friends held part-time jobs in the neighborhood. For these high school students without cars, downtown Manhattan served as a central and invigorating meeting point.

Even the adults, who would normally drive when in Brooklyn, chose to take the subway into Chinatown to attend to business and call on older family members. “The elders who live in Chinatown, we don't make them come to us. We come to them.”

The Brooklyn Chinese aren't the only ones heading into Manhattan's Chinatown on the weekend. A smaller but just as determined handful makes the even longer trek from Flushing, Queens, catching the 7 train into Manhattan and transferring downtown.

But Flushing, too, draws crowds from near and far. Home to the largest Chinatown outside of Asia, the neighborhood has become a mammoth destination in its own right.

Increasingly prosperous—and also crowded—Flushing is now the fourth largest business district in New York City. During rush hour, a surge of accountants, teachers, nurses, and retail workers pour in.

Many of them hail from mainland Chinese enclaves in the satellite neighborhoods of Elmhurst and Corona. In Flushing, the chatter one hears is often in Mandarin, unlike the Cantonese more commonly thrown around in Manhattan's Chinatown and Bensonhurst.

On weekends, straphangers pour back into Flushing for another reason: the food. The neighborhood is a mecca for regional cuisine, featuring staple dishes like Hunan stewed fish, Shanghai braised pork belly, and bing tanghulu (candied hawthorn fruits).

Restaurant workers are the first out the door at 7 a.m. Come lunchtime and dinnertime, the Corona crowd is joined by a new lot of younger, affluent Chinese from Manhattan and Long Island City.

While LIC isn't considered a Chinatown on its own, its population has soared as young professionals and tech workers seeking newer apartment buildings close to both Flushing and Midtown have set up camp.

For young people in New York, life unfolds most vividly after dark. In recent years, nightlife along the L train has exploded, with enticing options from 8th Avenue to Bushwick. One of the most popular neighborhoods along the line is the East Village.

Considering the arrivals to 1st Avenue at 11 p.m. on a Saturday night, we can see that the East Village and Alphabet City are a hotbed of nightlife, with bars like Niagara, Heaven Can Wait, and The Penny Farthing drawing crowds from Midtown to Bushwick.

Even with this plethora of options, some residents of the East Village prefer to go out in other locales, sometimes even intentionally avoiding their neighborhood. Becca Foley, a young resident, explains:

“I'm 26 and the crowd in the East Village feels a lot younger. A lot of kids are visiting and some are interns, so I think it's more fun to go out with a more local scene in Williamsburg and Bushwick. It's mostly about the age, but I also have better conversations with people [in Bushwick] since they're more mature and there's a lot more diversity in terms of sexuality, gender, and background.”

A smaller but equally dedicated crowd, hundreds of young revelers embark on a weekly pilgrimage to Bushwick. Featuring megaclubs like House Of Yes and a range of bars like Carousel, Abe's Pagoda, and The Johnson's, the neighborhood is inundated with partygoers who liven the streets around the Jefferson St, DeKalb Avenue, and Myrtle-Wyckoff stops along the L train.

Considering, for example, the Jefferson St station at 11 PM on a Saturday evening, we can see the influx coming from Williamsburg, the East Village, the Lower East Side, and even as far as Times Square in Manhattan.

As expected, the shifting seasons play a role in how many people are willing to make the trek to Bushwick.

In the wintry months of January, February, and March, fewer people are going out than during the rest of the year. But even on the coldest nights, there is still a core group of partygoers undeterred by the wind and cold.

The biggest month of 2023 was October. It's the perfect storm: college students are back in town and the month caps off with Halloween. Thanks to the changing climate, the weather is often still mild.

Known for its high concentration of “open until the sun comes up" bars, Bushwick features a crowd eager to stay out later than most.

Looking at late-night departures from stations along the L, we can see that the party rages later in Bushwick than in its tamer counterpart of Williamsburg. Though more revelers are initially leaving Bedford Av and Metropolitan Av at midnight, by 3 a.m. Jefferson St has overtaken them both.

Rush hour traffic peaks on Wednesday. But by Friday, some workers have more flexibility.

Such is the case at Metropolitan Av, a trendy area in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Once an up-and-coming neighborhood, a wave of gentrification has cemented its status as a home for wealthy young creatives and tech workers.

From Wednesday to Friday, the number of people catching the train at 8 a.m. drops to about 55% of its peak. This may reflect the effects of work-from-home arrangements in a post-pandemic world. By Saturday, that number is down to 15% as residents enjoy their weekend.

The Upper East Side is one of the more affluent districts in NYC, known for upscale shopping and impressive residences. With the Met and the Guggenheim nearby, it attracts many tourists seeking a dose of the city's art scene. Its east side, Yorkville, has seen a wave of new development since the arrival of the Second Avenue Subway in 2017.

Curiously, the rush hour traffic going into the weekend follows exactly the same pattern we saw in Williamsburg. On Friday morning, only 55% of peak traffic remains. By Saturday, that ridership is again down to just 15%.

Jackson Heights is one of the most culturally diverse areas in Queens, dubbed "the whole world in one neighborhood." It's home to a large South Asian and Latin population.

Rahmn, who works at the 73rd St Halal Food truck, starts his Saturday shift by sunrise. "The weekend morning, that is a busy time. Lots of people going to work." He notes of his clientele, "many [are] Chinese restaurant workers, some self-employed, everybody is different."

The data shows that on Friday morning, the number of commuters is still about 85% of its Wednesday peak. By Saturday, 38% continue to ride the train—a rate more than twice that of the wealthier neighborhoods.

Concourse is neighborhood in the Bronx whose commercial and residential buildings sit in the shadow of Yankee Stadium. Mostly Black and Latino communities reside in the South Bronx. Relative to the rest of the city, it is a lower-income neighborhood.

Similar to Jackson Heights, 86% of the peak number of commuters head to work early on Friday mornings. On Saturday, the rate matches Jackson Heights almost exactly at 38%.

In 2022, the Times declared that "Fridays are for free time." While data supports their claim in wealthier, white-collar neighborhoods, that option is often out of reach for working-class communities.

Flushing Meadows Park, nestled between Flushing and Corona, Queens, boasts no less than four stadiums with a combined seating of nearly 100,000.

It's home to the New York Mets, and hosts the internationally renowned US Open tennis tournament. It's also the fourth largest park in New York City, just edging out Central Park. But on a frigid day in January, hardly anyone has a reason to head over.

It's a different story on game day. Once the baseball season begins in late March, tens of thousands pile into Citi Field. Some fans drive or take the LIRR, but most locals jam onto the 7 train to Mets-Willets Point.

They come from all over, especially nearby Queens. Two big spikes at Grand Central and the Port Authority represent the thousands who come into the city from all over the Tri-State area.

In late summer, things get even more packed as the US Open kicks off. Eitan Darwish, a former ball boy, used to take the 7 to the Billie Jean King Tennis Center every morning.

“The players don't take the train, they get private cars from their hotel,” he notes. “Ball boys can take an hourly shuttle, but I think the subway is faster with the traffic.”

The Open has a morning session that starts at 11, and then an evening session at 7. We can see distinct spikes on the map before each session, with many fans again coming from out of town.

The MTA's data is averaged over the course of the month, but major events drive enough traffic that we can pinpoint them anyway.

Eitan cautions, “The Mets play away games half the time, but some nights that overlap [with the US Open] happens. When it happens on a Semifinals night, the traffic is insane.”

One such night was Wednesday, August 30, 2023. The Mets eked out a 6-5 victory over the Rangers while Zhang Zhizhen (China) upset Casper Ruud (Norway) in the 2nd round.

Since 2015, there's one more reason for New Yorkers to head to Flushing Meadows: the Queens Night Market.

There, over one hundred vendors serve foods from cuisines all over the world. The market runs Saturdays from April to October on the west side of Flushing Meadows, off the 111 St stop across the highway from Citi Field.

The event is the perfect essence of Queens, the most ethnically diverse place in the world. Where else can you eat Trinidadian doubles, Mongolian yak cheese, and a Sudanese sambuxa in one meal?

We'd love to hear about how you ride the subway. If you have a compelling story that can be told through data, we'd be happy to feature it on this site!

To share your story, whether it's a short personal anecdote or a full data-driven analysis, please submit it to this form.

Thanks from the Subway Stories team!