The maps I designed for this assignment focused on the location of vineyard and tasting room attractions in relation to the public transit options currently available on the East End of Long Island. I was inspired to undertake this project as a user of Suffolk County Transit buses, my experience working in the viticultural industry, and years of being driven mad by this novelty map:

I’ve seen this map used as decor in tasting rooms, posh coffee shops, and other spaces that cater to tourist interests since at least 2018. The map of imagined rail service was produced by Transit Authority Figures as part of a broader series of NYC Subway-inspired maps. Considering that many visitors and part-time residents of our area spend most of their time in New York City, it makes sense that this map would gain traction here. While the content of this map is an interesting thought experiment, where it was used and the way it was used by business-owners. Why not use actual maps? Or reinterpret existing services and attractions in this format? Especially maps of vineyard location?

For a bit more visual context, here’s a System Map, from Suffolk County Transit.

And while we’re at it, here’s a couple promotional maps of the viticultural attractions in this region I recall encountering over the years.

The above map was widely distributed as postcards, while the below map was featured as part of a brochure produced by Long Island Wine Country.

My goal for this project is to first evaluate the spatial relationships (i.e., the distance between) existing public transit and vineyards, in order to identify vineyards within a walkable distance from public transit stops. I did this by searching Suffolk County Open Data for datasets focused on public transit options available in the region. I downloaded shapefiles for bus lines, bus stops, rail lines, rail stations, road centerlines, road aliases, and vineyard points. Using Tableau Public, I created a map of public transit options in Suffolk County, emphasizing bus services (Suffolk County Transit’s branding is blue and yellow). I avoided using the road centerline data because there was virtually no way to include it without completely overwhelming the rest of the map. To the transit map, I added the vineyard point data (I colored these points purple, an intuitive choice given what they represent). Using the buffer function, I calculated and visualized a half-mile buffer zone around vineyard points. Instead of designing more at this stage, I decided to take the maps I’d created at this point to a few potential users so I could incorporate their feedback as much as possible into the next phase of design. 

I spoke with three residents of the North Fork who also work on the North Fork, one was a public librarian (User #1), another was a student (User #2), and the last was a Town of Southold Councilman (User #3). When presenting my work to each user, I showed each a map of existing transit options (i.e., rail and bus lines), then that same transit map with vineyard locations layered onto, and then finally a map including the half-mile buffers around each vineyard point. When I presented them with the last map, I focused on Riverhead and points east. I asked each user to take a moment to look at the map itself and encouraged them to explore the map by scrolling, zooming in or out, etc. Once they were done exploring, I asked them to scroll and show me a bus stop that was within the buffer zones of at least three vineyards. 

One thing I found interesting when discussing my work with users was that each of them zoomed in on the same two clusters of vineyards, one located in Cutchogue, another in Mattituck. Another element I found interesting – and quite helpful – was the feedback users provided regarding the overall design. All my users told me they thought the rail line data was ultimately a distraction from the bus line and bus stop data. User #1 asked if there was any way I could include a quarter-mile buffer zone on top of the half-mile buffer and adjust the opacity and inner borderlines to make it easier to spot bus stops. User #2 asked if there was any way I could include more attractions, like hotels and farm stands, in addition to the vineyards. User #3 suggested that I actually shrink the buffer zones to a quarter-mile and eighth-mile from a half-mile and quarter-mile, and asked if there was any way I could include more context about the surrounding roadways. 

During or shortly after each user discussion, I redesigned the “final” map I presented based on each individual user’s feedback, selections focused on the Mattituck cluster included below. For Users #1 and #3, this was as easy as calculating new buffer fields and adding them or changing the basemap. Based on User #2’s feedback, I revisited Suffolk County Open Data and downloaded a dataset representing the locations of farms stands and other agricultural features in Suffolk County, and I attempted to use ChatGPT to generate a small dataset of hotels’ latitude and longitude – I had success visualizing the former, and while the latter was promising at first, I encountered projection problems that led to me ultimately discarding the data.

To round out this exercise, I then combined all the feedback into a single map, presented below, first the entire East End and then three closer looks at different sections of the North Fork.

I wanted to take my spatial analysis further with some intersects calculations and other functions, but while troubleshooting I found that these functions were only applicable to joined/linked datasets, not blended data (per Tableau forum discussions, like this one, at least). This is something I will keep in mind when refining this series of maps. Adding more data regarding bus ridership, moving violations, and roadway traffic might provide more opportunities to join datasets, as well as create a richer picture of navigating the East End of Long Island. I found out that accomplishing this will involve submitting information requests to each individual town’s police department and department of highways. This was something I discussed quite a bit with one of my users, who serves as a Councilman on behalf of the Town of Southold— thankfully that’s where the vast majority of vineyards are located!