Yes more than a million...what they do is count the residents during the whole route. While there may only be a 20 people watching in front of a residence building there were 1000 who could have looked out their window. So they count 1000!
Yes more than a million...what they do is count the residents during the whole route. While there may only be a 20 people watching in front of a residence building there were 1000 who could have looked out their window. So they count 1000!
Along the same lines, I don't know why people keep saying that the bridges are spectator-free parts of the race. How many people have a view of at least some segment of the Queensboro Bridge from their window?
"Whether it be the NYC Marathon, Chicago Marathon or the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade, crowd estimates are notoriously wrong.
Two million spectators means there are 76,900 spectators per mile. So that’s what, 14.5 people crammed into every foot along the course, or 7 people deep on each side for each foot for 26 miles, shoulder to shoulder. That’s assuming everyone is only 1ft shoulder to shoulder.
Allow being packed at the shoulders 2 feet per person, that means the crowd is packed tight 14 deep on each side for 26 miles. That’s just not anywhere near accurate. Not even for 1st avenue or Central Park.
The first two miles have no crowd. Neither does mile 16. Significant portions of the course have sparse crowds, almost none at all: from 12 to 15 miles and again from 18 to 21.5 miles. So out of 26 miles you have a significant proportion of it -- 9.5 miles -- where the crowd is either sparse (6.5 miles) or non-existent (3 miles). Now you've got to cram that phantom 2 million people into 16.5 miles. Do you see where I'm going with this yet?"
So you just have no idea what you are talking about because at no point is it claimed that there are 2 million people watching at one specific time. You don't account from people watching from anything other than street level, you make assumptions about about a stagnant crowd. All this explanation does is convince me you have no understanding at all about how crowds work.
It's a common belief that NYC Marathon attracts "Millions of Spectators". For example, see Jonathan Gault's summary of the latest Marathon season. However, is it true?
Let's settle for a Million. To get 1M spectators you need roughly 40,000 people per Mile, that's more than 20 for each Yard. There are two sides to the road, so we're talking about an average of 10 per yard on each side. All the way.
10 people per Yard is a lot. It's very crowded. If you look at the videos from the Marathon, you'll see that for most of the time, the boardwalks are practically empty. Even in Central Park, there aren't too many people around.
The number Million looks like an urban legend and I can't see how it's supported by facts. 100K might be way more accurate.
You know what, you're right. I was actually thinking yesterday how official numbers for these mass events are always inflated, and I think there's no way there were millions of people on the marathon course on Sunday. Lazy mistake on my part. I'm going to update the article. Thousands? Absolutely. But it's unlikely to be a million, especially multiple millions.
So we know y'all like to pretend you are some sort of "journalists." I'll admit I'm not a fancy journalist or anything but rather than immediately being swayed by the first post that almost pretends like the got through middle school math, how about you actually call the NYC marathon, find out where they got their numbers and how they were calculated and then maybe find some alternate sources with credibility and present that information objectively and let people decide?
It seems like what a journalist would do, I know as a mathematician, if you presented that data as a proof, I'd probably be laughed at by the entire department and they'd maybe compliment me on my funny joke and then ask where proof was.
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