Explorations of real-world traffic

Explorations of real-world traffic (from Flowing Data)

Apr 15, 2010 to Mapping – Post on Twitter – 23 comments

Traffic visualizations, mostly in the form of geographic maps, have been popular lately. Governments and organizations have been releasing lots of GPS data, and as a result, we get to see some impressive animations and explore some slick interactives.

We don’t often get to see how cars, trains, subways, airplanes, etc move in physical space, because, well, we’re usually in them, so it’s always interesting to see the big picture. The activity feels very organic as traffic peaks during rush hours and slows down during the night, taxis provide service to and from the airport, and air traffic continues into the late hours. The maps pulsate with energy.

Let’s take a look at some of these great traffic visualizations, some new and some old.