Timelapse Projects
Viewed over time, the routes taken by taxis in San Francisco ebb and flow, revealing patterns of movement out of and into downtown and outlying areas. By viewing the Cabspotting data in this way, the city comes alive. The rhythms of commuters, airport arrivals, traffic jams, accidents, and special events become patterns which bear a strange resemblance to circulatory systems in our own bodies.
We will continue to post new animations periodically as our team and contributing artists work with the growing data set. Contact us if you would like access to the underlying data or have suggestions for other timelapse visualizations you may be interested in seeing.
Caution: Some of these files are quite large (8mb), and can cause problems in some browsers.
Intersections
Each cab's path is represented by a series of crosses. The faster the taxi is going, the larger the size of the cross.
Bay Area, Twelve Hours:
San Francisco, Four Hours, 30 minute lines:
Speed Overlay
Each cab's path is represented by a line. The color of the line depends on the speed of the taxi - red is fast, white is slow.
Four hours of activity:
Brought to you by The Exploratorium, Yellow Cab, and Stamen Design