Cool map alert: WaPo takes a look at transit commute times

Transit-dependent commuters in the western side of the D.C. metro area have faster, easier commute options than do those living on the eastern side of the region. This, unfortunately, mimics the divide along income lines — with the wealthier neighborhoods and suburbs being located in the west and the poorer ones to the east.

This isn’t new information, but the Washington Post has created a cool new map that shows the severity of the discrepancy. This sums it up well:

If you work near the White House, don’t have a car, and want to keep your commute under an hour, you could live in Gaithersburg, Md., or Reston, Va., both about 20 miles away.

But you’d have trouble doing the same from just across the Anacostia River in neighborhoods near the southern tip of the District, roughly seven miles away.

Using an isochrone map to show different average commute time regions (15, 30, 45 and 60 minutes) the maps paint a clear picture of which areas are favored by good public transit. In another map, the Post shows how Metro’s proposed earlier weekday closing times will affect mobility. It’s really dramatic, and once again

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The Post used Mapzen Mobility to build the maps, and gathered demographic data from the census and ridership data via WMATA.