Sunday, April 4, 2010

Dealing with Data - Period 5

I found this cool article and set of graphics in the New York times. 
They used data from taxi rides to create graphics that show the behavior of taxi riders over the course of a week.
You can find it here:

Your assignment this week is to play with this data and see what you can learn from it. Then, write a brief reflection (two paragraph) that address the following questions:
1) What did you learn from the data about people's behavior or how to display data that you have collected?
2) What type of data would you like to see represented this way?

This is due by Friday, April 9th

Have fun!

21 comments:

dashygurl101 said...

I have learned that on most days the most taxi activity is mostly in the middle of the city. In the middle or late in the day is most activity. On Sunday the really early morning(12:oo am - 4:oo am) is a lot of taxi's. Then it slows down and at 11:oo am it starts up again. The high point is 4:00 pm - 11:00 pm. Then dies down again. It is also a little like that on Saterday. Then all the other days bright and early, don't show as much taxi's. I think Wednesday at 10:00 and 9:00 pm is the highest- when I look at it.

I really don't know what I would see represented. I think it's hard to think about it. Not much stuff you can do. Maybe something like hybrids go around?

ilovepickles4ever said...

1) From this article I learned many things. I went slowly time to time and saw that around 6 am on Sunday, the highest amount of taxis per hour is on W 44th St. that has 4 taxis. I also learned that from 12:00 to 6:0 pm, there are the most taxis on Sunday on 7th and 8th street. I learned that on monday around 495th street, at 8am there are as much as 56 rides in one hour! I thought that on friday it would be the most taxis in an hour around 5pm because it is rush hour and people are coming home from a day of work. But it shows on the chart that not many people are taking too many taxis. But now that I think about it, people might have the day off on Friday's. I think the highest point that people take taxis is on Wednesday or Thursday at around 4:00pm.

2) I would see maybe movies bought or candy sold, I'm not quite sure though.

C.96.M.27.K.12 said...

1.) I learned that on Sundays the traffic is really heavy at 12:00 a.m and then dies down, until around 1:00 p.m and then the traffic is kind-of heavy until around 8:00 p.m. But on Monday the traffic is really light until 9:00 a.m and then the traffic is heavy until around 8:00 p.m. I also noticed that only like 2 or 3 streets around central park are used a lot, the rest aren’t used nearly as much. But 5th, 8th, and 7th avenue and all the streets around them (the center of town) are always busy and there busy everywhere. On Saturdays the taxis are only busy in the really early and late hours. Basically it definitely depends on what day it is for when, and where, the taxi’s go/run.
2.) If any other data could be represented this way I would probably like to see the most popular places people go in town, or something like that. For example it could show weather J&J’s or Milano’s is more popular to eat at, depending on where the people shown in the data go.

CrazyCurls said...

1. The data presented showed many things. A trends I notice was that during the hours such as (a.m) 8, 9, 10, 11, (p.m.) 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 o'clock traffic was the heaviest. During the night, traffic of taxis was very scarce, if any. Another trend I noticed in the data was that certain spots always had taxi pick ups or drop offs. For example, 8th ave. I did a little research on this area, and found that near by are many restaurants, clubs and hotels. This may be the reason why so many people are dropped off or picked up here.
2. I would like to see data such as movement around a home shown in this way. I think it would be interesting to see homes compared to other homes, and see which rooms people use most.

CrazyCurls said...

I would like to add to my post. For number ones example of 8th ave, Penn Station is also very near by to the high concentrated area of drop offs and pick ups on that street. As this is a train station, many commuters probably get dropped off and picked up here, as well as those people using the facilities mentioned in my previous post.

stitchlover said...

1) I learned that people have their own daily routine and use it almost everyday. I also realized that because of these daily routines, the people who ride the taxis usually only get picked up at one spot or two. I noticed that most people get rides/dropped off at 7th and 8th Avenue. I also found that txais usually come during the hours 10AM through midnight and then it starts to die down.

2) Maybe if they showed how many people get on and off the subway... that would be AWESOME!!!

RolexJoe said...

The most taxi activiy was in the island of Manhattan. The other boroughs had little little taxi activity, except for the airports. So I assume people who live outside of Manhattan; the boroughs, Long Island, New Jersey, and Westchester drive or use public transportation, like the subway, LIRR, and Metro North.
During the weekdays, particular areas had a lot of taxi activity. Heaviest pickup around Port Authority, Penn Station, and Grand Central. This is due to people coming into the city for work. During rush hour, 6 am to 9 am and 5 pm to 8 pm, taxi activity were the heaviest. Taxi activity starts at about 6 am and doesn’t really end until 1 am the next morning.
On the weekends, the most activity occurs during 12 pm to 1 am. This is probably due to people hanging out late in the city for dinner, drinking, and shows. There isn’t one particular area where all the activity is heaviest during the day.
It would be interesting to see this type of data for:
1 – How weather impacts people’s activities? For example, bad weather versus good weather or season, how often people go to the gym.
2 – Most popular NYC site visited by tourists.

Kyla said...

1) I learned that on Sunday around 12 to 4 am is really busy and 5 to 6 am is not that busy, week days 6 to 8 pm is usually the busiest of the day besides the morning. Also I noticed that 12 to 11 pm on saturday is also really busy. Even though a lot of people are in New York City, the weekends are more crowded than the weekdays, I was really surprised by this.
2) I would like to see fast food graphed, example, which fast food restaurants has the most costumers in New York or another topic what is the top ten songs in each town/city in New York.

RolexJoe said...

The most taxi activiy was in the island of Manhattan. The other boroughs had little little taxi activity, except for the airports. So I assume people who live outside of Manhattan; the boroughs, Long Island, New Jersey, and Westchester drive or use public transportation, like the subway, LIRR, and Metro North.

During the weekdays, particular areas had a lot of taxi activity. Heaviest pickup around Port Authority, Penn Station, and Grand Central. This is due to people coming into the city for work. During rush hour, 6 am to 9 am and 5 pm to 8 pm, taxi activity were the heaviest. Taxi activity starts at about 6 am and doesn’t really end until 1 am the next morning.

On the weekends, the most activity occurs during 12 pm to 1 am. This is probably due to people hanging out late in the city for dinner, drinking, and shows. There isn’t one particular area where all the activity is heaviest during the day.
It would be interesting to see this type of data for:
1 – How weather impacts people’s activities? For example, bad weather versus good weather or season, how often people go to the gym.
2 – Most popular NYC site visited by tourists.

Labrat 51 said...

One of the pieces of information I gathered from this model was that around 8 AM - 12 PM many taxi's, and assuming most taxi's have people in them, many people, crossed through 7th Ave and 8th Ave. I assume this is the morning rush. Many people probably want to get to their jobs.

Also from around 10 PM - 3 AM W 13th Street is very busy. I assume this is also due to rush. People probably are trying to get out of the city to their homes.

I would like to see perhaps the numbers of people in each car. As in, does a car usually have 4 people, 2, 6? This would be interesting because that would branch off into how many people leave that area at a time. Also how many people are in the area at any given time.

shmunkle said...

1) I learned that lots of people get a taxi ride on 7th avenue because that usally had a lot of taxi rides every day. I also learned that even though it's called the city that never sleeps between 1 and 4am lots of the taxi drivers are sleeping. I also learned that lots of people need a taxi ride from 7 to 9am. I also learned that it seems that nobody usally needs a taxi ride at 12th avenue. I also learned that Thursday usally has the most taxi rides.
2) I would like to know why so many people take a taxi ride at 7th avenue. I would also like to know why more people have a taxi ride on Thursday. I would also like to know why nobody is taking a taxi ride on 12th avenue.

eye8AburgerJR said...

I thought that the number of taxi pick-ups does not change at all not on weekends or workdays. And that Manhattan had by far the most pick ups because there are so many people there! And that in certain spots there are and extreme number of pick-ups during the day. But what I think is weird its that if u looked at some other very populated place it would not be as much like san Francisco people are not in as much of a rush so there are much less pick-ups. And that would make sense because on the east coast we talk faster and walk faster.

miss09892 said...

I learned that most of the rides happen in the middle of the city. Also on weekends, there aren't as many rides as there are during the weekdays. And on weekdays, most of the rides are around nine of ten PM. The fewest amount of rides on weekdays are between one and five AM. What I think is weird, though, is that on Saturday most of the rides are around nine PM, and on Sunday there are very few rides after five PM.
I think I would like to see something like places that are visited/where people go depending on the day or time.

ChickenNikeSoup said...

One piece of information I have gathered from this is that around 12:00pm it gets very busy. Most of the activity is towards the middle of the city. Another thing is that on the weekend it seems to calm down a bit, compared to the week days. I would like to see information displayed like this, having to do with soccer activity around the world, rather than just a city.

timeblazer42 said...

I learned that a lot of people still use taxis at night. And even very late at night when most people are sleeping. But mostly on weekdays, not as much taxi activity is happening at late night as on the weekends. The least activity I noticed was around 4 am. The most was around the day (9am-9pm) and it falls around 10pm.

The data I would probably like displayed this way is population of cities over years, or where natural disasters happen most often.

xoxopicklelover said...

I really enjoyed this article. Although its a rather random topic the data was very interesting. I noticed that places that are known to have a lot of tourists are areas where there is immense taxi activity. These places include 5th avenue, various areas around central park and 7th avenue. I figure this because tourists generally don't know their way around New York City and are usually quite lost. So they take a taxi to guarantee that they get to where they want to be. Your average New Yorker will walk everywhere and perhaps only use a taxi at night if its late.
I loved the way they showed this data! It was easy to understand and i found it actually enjoyable to watch. It was super informative and I wish that all data was displayed this way. This would be a good way to display traffic because its simple to follow.
I loved this article and I look forward to doing similar things in the near future.

Summer09 said...

As I was reading the data I realized that the taxi rides were very high around the areas that there was a transportation station. They seemed to be the highest during the times where people were going to work and coming home from work. I also realized one of the most busiest times is on Sundays at about 12pm. I also realized that their was really busy near main attractions, tourist sights and main roads. I noticed that the days with the most taxi rides were on Friday late at night into early Saturday mornings and Saturday nights into early Sunday mornings. I realized that there were areas that stayed consistent of being busy.

I would like to see where the most visited cities in the world. I think that it would be interesting to see where people like to go. I also think it would be interesting to see what the most popular shows and books for our age group.

Summer09 said...

As I was reading the data I realized that the taxi rides were very high around the areas that there was a transportation station. They seemed to be the highest during the times where people were going to work and coming home from work. I also realized one of the most busiest times is on Sundays at about 12pm. I also realized that their was really busy near main attractions, tourist sights and main roads. I noticed that the days with the most taxi rides were on Friday late at night into early Saturday mornings and Saturday nights into early Sunday mornings. I realized that there were areas that stayed consistent of being busy.

I would like to see where the most visited cities in the world. I think that it would be interesting to see where people like to go. I also think it would be interesting to see what the most popular shows and books for our age group.

Bob said...

I learned that it really mattered what time of day it was, and what day of the week it was. When I pressed on La Guardia Airport, I saw that there were 75 rides a hour at Sunday at 9:00 pm. But when I looked at it on the same day at 6:00 am, there was 0 rides per hour. Another thing is that in some street there would be 16 rides per hour, then the next street down there would be zero rides per hour. That happened in a lot of places, like W. 75th street.

I would instead want to know how many people go on each train or subway train each day, and which ones. Or I may want to see how many people go to which airport, and where they go from there.

ilovechesecakeyesido97 said...

It was most active in areas like Grand Central and Penn station during rush hour, and, sometimes, in the middle of the night. This data could be presented in a line graph I think. That would show the amount of people taking taxis at certain hours on certain days in a way it could easily be seen and understood. During the day on a Wednesday there are not going to be many people taking taxis because they are in work or school most of the time, they take the taxis to go to or go home from these places in the morning and at night. I honestly think that the reason there are so many taxi takers at 2:00 in the morning on a Saturday night is because people go out partying in the city and need a ride home because they can't drive.
You could also show how many people take the subway or the train like this. You could show the most often used ATM's or popular restaurants. I like this way of showing information.

spots101 said...

1. I learned that in Lexington Avenue there are 29 rides per hour around Bloomingdales on Saturday. I found out that Lexington is a big and long avenue, which includes a lot of shopping. Also most people do a lot of there shopping on Saturdays because that is their free day from work. Another thing I noticed is that on Monday about 7 pm a lot of people were leaving 8th avenue. To explain that I think that on Mondays around 7pm is when all the adults from the city are ready to come home from work. So that is why I think there is such a huge flow of traffic.
2. I would like to see where people pick to go on their honeymoons. I think that it would be really interesting to see the top places of where people go, and that one place that the people go the most.

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