What Public Transit Data Teaches Us About How People Use a City

12/05/2013. [VIDEO] from Schema Design
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA via Urban Prototyping

With this project for the Urban Data Design Challenge, the studio, Schema Design receibed a Honorable Mention. The intention of the challenge was to use various methods of data visualization to develop insight into public transit in three cities: Philadelphia, Zurich and Geneva.

Zurich by Schema Design. Click above to see larger image.

Zurich by Schema Design. Click above to see larger image.

Geneva by Schema Design. Click above to see larger image.

San Francisco by Schema Design. Click above to see larger image.

Schema Design’s project, feature the transit patterns of individuals in each city, giving a very intense look at the way in which people navigate within these cities. Designers, Christian Marc Schmidt and Sergei Larionov, wrote about the three below videos:

Ridership is an identifier for how cities are utilized—whether they are centralized, decentralized or have multiple focal points, whether activity concentrates during rush hour as people are entering or leaving the city center(s), or whether activity is spread out over time. As the transit passenger data suggests, Geneva is centralized while Zurich appears to have multiple centers, and activity is concentrated during rush hours. Activity in San Francisco on the other hand is more evenly spread out, both spatially and over the course of the day. These insights are not only useful for city planners and transit authorities, who can get a sense of what areas see high and low ridership and understand what areas are underserved by public transit.

Below, the videos show transit ridership in public transportation over 24 hours, depicting what areas of the city have the most activity and when.

San Francisco.-