How to Use Hopstop to Get Public Transit Directions in New York

Have you ever wondered why there isn't a map website out there for people without a car? Or why the Metro Transit Authority's website is about as useful as teats on a bull?Meet your new best friend. Its name is Hopstop.Hopstop is a website that provides incredibly precise public-transit and walking directions. (The only other site like it is Google Transit, but the two websites serve different sets of cities in the U.S. and around the world.)Hopstop is pretty easy to use, but the plethora of options available to you can take some getting used to. For example, you can adjust for more walking with fewer transfers, and vice versa. That--along with a myriad of other great features--makes Hopstop a priceless resource for getting around without a motor vehicle.Bookmark Hopstop and use it every time you go out. It probably knows your neighborhood better than you do.

Things You'll Need

• Computer with internet connection and web browser
• Bus, subway and train fare
• Walking shoes

Instructions

1. Go to the Hopstop website and click on New York City.

2. Make sure the "Area" drop-down menu in the Starting Address field is marked "New York City." Next to that, choose the borough from which you will be departing. Fill in the address field with an address, intersection or popular restaurant/place.

3. In the Destination Address field, make sure the "Area" drop-down menu is marked "New York City." Choose the borough in which your destination is located. Fill in the address field with an address, intersection or popular restaurant/place.

4. Below the Starting and Destination address fields, notice the other options. They include: departure day and time; language you would like the directions to be in; transportation mode options; walking/transfer options; regional rail options; and whether to consider private shuttles and ferries. In addition you will see taxi and car-service options--as well as the "More options" and "Advanced Options" links, but you can ignore those for right now.

5. Choose your departure day and time. The program will automatically fill in the current day and time to the nearest half-hour.

6. Choose whether you would like subway/rail only, bus only, subway/rail or bus, or walking only. This gives you maximum freedom to choose how you prefer to travel.

7. Choose whether you would prefer more walking with fewer transfers, or less walking with more transfers. The Hopstop program will automatically populate this field with whichever option takes less time.

8. Choose whether you would like to include regional rail (Metro North, etc.) in your directions. In most cases, you will not need regional rail. For longer trips, you might want to opt for it, but regional rails tend to cost more than subways and buses, and they don't save much time when you're traveling locally.

9. Read the directions! You can also choose to print, email, save, share, and perform other actions. For each leg of the directions, you can click the "re-route" button to choose a different bus, subway or train.

10. Explore the numerous options you have to customize your route, change it, see neighborhood maps, adjust for walking, search for nearby popular places, and so on. Hopstop is positively chock full of interesting bits.

Tips & Warnings

• If you would like to save addresses for future directions, create an account with Hopstop and it will save them for you in the drop-down menus for the departing and destination fields.

• Hopstop takes into account all temporary and permanent public transit schedule changes. How convenient!

• When filling in the starting and destination addresses, you can click "More options" or "Advanced options" (they lead to the same thing) to see even more possibilities.

• Hopstop is not 100 percent reliable, just as the transit system sometimes makes mistakes. When traveling without a car, try to use multiple sources to confirm what Hopstop tells you. Still, Hopstop is about 98 percent reliable.

Resources

• Hopstop