Mapping the Crowd at No Kings 3

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I made a series of diagrams to help record and understand the extent and progress of the crowd at the No Kings 3 march in New York City.

The charts show how quickly several contingents were able to move along the route, including ones at the front, middle, and back of the march.

(The timeline data is based on Signal chatter and overhead photographs, and I’m sure it contains many small measurement errors, but I think the overall shape is accurate.)

Observations

The charts help to visualize a few notable elements of the march dynamics:

The Seventh Avenue front moved very slowly from 56th to around 50th (around 5 minutes per block), due to severe media congestion around celebrities marching with the front banner, then sped up to our “normal” speed (around 3 minutes per block) after they left the march.
The Broadway front started from further north, but got ahead of the Seventh Avenue front and had to wait to ensure it didn’t reach Times Square first — then, once in Times Square, it paused there, as scheduled to allow space between the two sets of banners.
A wave of people got misled by police movement and accidentally left before the front banners, forming a false front that arrived in Times Square more than twenty minutes ahead of the main march. The accessibility contingent got caught up in this, and remained ahead of the lead banners until 42nd Street.
Groups in the middle and back moved very slowly down to Times Square, then sped up after passing the congestion at the merge point.
When the march was about to step off at 2:00, between a third and half of the crowd was south of 58th Street.
Marching at half speed (5-6 minutes per block) can be frustrating — but it’s better than barely moving at all while waiting to march.