Ridiculous Transfer Lengths

Transfers on transit are funny things. On the one hand, it is undeniably helpful to have multiple lines connect to each other and feed ridership; trying to have a single-seat ride for every trip would require infinite money (a glitch which, if found, would change city planning in more ways than this). At the same time, there is a limit to what makes a reasonable transfer. And today I want to talk about one of those limits: how much walking you have to do inside a station that claims to be connecting.1. Up and DownOne of the ways in which a transfer can feel like "too much" is when there's a lot of up-and-down motion required to make the transition between lines or systems. Note that I don't simply mean going down or up: it's perfectly reasonable and indeed feels quite natural to go from a deep underground line (like a true tube line in London) to a more cut-and-covery, shallow line. What feels less reasonable, and can make a transfer feel indeed quite annoying or onerous, is making a…