This is neat - however every location near me is considered GREEN (low population). Maybe that's true, but any time I've been to Wegman's... it's been packed. Of course, maybe Foursquare just isn't popular enough around here.
Wawa also showing "few humans." - Perhaps what this needs is a way to adjust the scale. What might be "few humans" in LA or NYC can be very different in other parts of the country.
If you can deal wih maybe 20 people, a rafting trip on the Tamur in Nepal is the closest I have come to absolutely "no one else here". No wifi. No electricity. A couple of nights with only the group and a large bonfire.
I can avoid social interaction with good connectivity and a thousand people around, or with only a few, but ten or twenty people (and nothing to distract me or them from having to talk!) seems like it would make that impossible without actually being antisocial...
Every few years my uncle takes a fishing trip in Alaska. He and two or three others are dropped off by plane and raft down a river for a week. Once a day the plane flies overhead to check up on them and at the end of the week picks them up. Other than that they never see another person.
I would assume they don't want to carry a satellite phone as that would give them a connection to that which they are intentionally trying to get away from.
Anyone else could drive up there as well.
I know what you are saying as I have spent plenty of time "completey alone" in mountains in Europe. But to me the type of remoteness we got there, knowing that its actually going to be quite an effort for other people to get there is somewhat special.
Amusing and provocative concept, but pragmatically challenged as the majority of people don't use apps like Foursquare or other check-in services. Moreover, those that do are likely not a representative sample of the broader population... so, as a proxy for crowdedness, the data feeds from apps/online services fail in most cases/places, IMHO.
So apparently, to avoid humans in my low density suburb I should - rather than, say, go to a park or trail - go to (1) Dunkin Donuts; (2) the local pizza place (3) the supermarket.
Exactly. I thought it would give me a list of resorts in remote areas, away from cities, close to wilderness etc. But it just uses Foursquare and Instagram check ins. Who uses Foursquare anymore?
Pretty inaccurate for Sunnyvale CA. Among its list of local empty spots is a restaurant that's packed every time I go to it and a park that's always filled with parents with young children, senior citizens out walking, and impromptu pickup games of soccer & volleyball.
I think this is more like "Avoid Foursquare and Instagram users", which may have some value to it anyway.
I check-in with Swarm at most places I visit. I'm usually the only person checked-in, even if it's fairly busy (which is to say that you're almost certainly right).
Terrible recommendations for my neighborhood in Oakland... the top 3 recommended places are the 3 of the most popular and crowded restaurants and bars in the area. The top one being the restaurant that's so busy it's generally hard to walk past on the sidewalk because there are so many people waiting out front.
I recently asked a friend in Manhattan how people there cope with the lack of personal space. She told me that whenever she needs a break from social interaction she just eats in a restaurant by herself. There may be hundreds of others around but they'll generally sense that you don't want to be bothered.
UK Midlands: Early mornings on Saturday or Sunday. My route over to a nice inner city area with coffee shops that do good eggs is through some small parks and a light industrial area. Canal towpaths for part of the route.
No people visible, but people in some of the factories and the very occasional jogger on the towpaths so not total isolation.
I just left New York after 12 years. One day, while I still lived there, I decided to see if there was anywhere I could be in Manhattan without seeing another human being in my field of vision. It took me several weeks of exploring possibilities, none of which were successful. Even Central Park didn't work, there was always someone wandering by, no matter how remote the spot.
I finally found the only spot where I could be for 30 minutes at a time, in total isolation. The New York Marble Cemetery on 2nd Avenue, in the East Village. It's a small patch of land, hidden down a narrow alleyway, behind a gate, open to the public just one day a month. It looks like nothing but a lawn surrounded by stone walls, because there are no headstones. It became my favorite day of the month, that one Sunday when I could go sit on a lawn in silence and solitude.
This probably only works for maybe New York and San Francisco. I'm in Toronto -- where few people use Foursquare/Swarm -- and it's basically just a list of every location near me.
Living in NYC, the only place where I can be alone is the special classroom students in my program have access through with a key. It's open 24/7.
Among the results I get I see Lincoln Center Plaza, which has tourists, Juilliard students, musicians and people that see those musicians. I also see Columbus Circle, which has one of the busiest subway stations and a mall.
I'll give some of the other places a try. This is a great idea for an app.
Shibuya Hachiko square with the bronze dog (犬 # 8) ね? ... that was the subject of a Richard Gere movie plus it is perpetually crowded.
If you really want to avoid the masses using this app try accessing it via a VPN. App responds with 'could not find location' meaning you are now invisible which obviates the need for privacy.
Seems like a more reliable metric would be take all nearby Yelp listings with no reviews and then remove any of those remaining that have any Foursquare/Instagram check-ins at all...
73 comments
[ 5.1 ms ] story [ 131 ms ] threadPlenty of places in the world you can get in a car, drive out somewhere, and be completely alone.
http://www.ironicsans.com/2008/02/idea_a_new_typography_term...
Is their data purely comprised of people who use this app? No wonder everything is green everywhere...
I think this is more like "Avoid Foursquare and Instagram users", which may have some value to it anyway.
No people visible, but people in some of the factories and the very occasional jogger on the towpaths so not total isolation.
I finally found the only spot where I could be for 30 minutes at a time, in total isolation. The New York Marble Cemetery on 2nd Avenue, in the East Village. It's a small patch of land, hidden down a narrow alleyway, behind a gate, open to the public just one day a month. It looks like nothing but a lawn surrounded by stone walls, because there are no headstones. It became my favorite day of the month, that one Sunday when I could go sit on a lawn in silence and solitude.
Among the results I get I see Lincoln Center Plaza, which has tourists, Juilliard students, musicians and people that see those musicians. I also see Columbus Circle, which has one of the busiest subway stations and a mall.
I'll give some of the other places a try. This is a great idea for an app.
渋谷 ハチ公前広場 Plaza 0.32 Miles 道玄坂2-1
That's one of the most crowed places in the world. Fail
If you really want to avoid the masses using this app try accessing it via a VPN. App responds with 'could not find location' meaning you are now invisible which obviates the need for privacy.