Human data shows how we move in cities • Hacker News Board

Re: Human data shows how we move in cities

#21

Post by neuralk » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 5:16 PM UTC

If you liked this, you may also enjoy Foursquare's visualization of checkins, which shows the pulse of the city and the change in human activities (and which areas are populated) as the day progresses:

New York City http://vimeo.com/75413842

San Francisco http://vimeo.com/75416817

Tokyo http://vimeo.com/75404940

Re: Human data shows how we move in cities

#22

Post by bdg » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 5:24 PM UTC

I can't make a meaningful interpretation from this. It looks pretty, but what does it mean?

Re: Human data shows how we move in cities

#23

Post by crisnoble » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 5:25 PM UTC

Does anyone know if there is an app that will produce a similar map, but that uses just your own data? I would love to have a map like that that shows where in my city I have been and that would encourage me to see more spots.

Re: Human data shows how we move in cities

#24

Post by enoch_r » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 5:31 PM UTC

crisnoble wrote: post #23

Does anyone know if there is an app that will produce a similar map, but that uses just your own data? I would love to have a map like that that shows where in my city I have been and that would encourage me to see more spots.

I haven't used it, but I remember hearing about "Fog of World"[1], which seems like it might be what you're looking for.

[1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fog-of-world/id505367096?mt=...

Re: Human data shows how we move in cities

#25

Post by rainforest » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 5:48 PM UTC

crisnoble wrote: post #23

Does anyone know if there is an app that will produce a similar map, but that uses just your own data? I would love to have a map like that that shows where in my city I have been and that would encourage me to see more spots.

Google Location History might have something (even if you don't expect it to) [1]

[1] : https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0/

Re: Human data shows how we move in cities

#26

Post by reubenmorais » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 6:01 PM UTC

crisnoble wrote: post #23

Does anyone know if there is an app that will produce a similar map, but that uses just your own data? I would love to have a map like that that shows where in my city I have been and that would encourage me to see more spots.

Strava will let you do this if you pay for premium. It's called Personal Heatmaps. It's typically used for running/cycling/swimming, but nothing stops you from using it to track your location.

http://www.strava.com

Re: Human data shows how we move in cities

#27

Post by Aldo_MX » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 6:02 PM UTC

I'm from Mexico City, and I'm genuinely surprised by the biking activity.

Unfortunately, only in the touristic areas, and near the "Ecobici" routes, there are bike-exclusive lanes. On the other side, drivers feel entitled to use the streets exclusively, and they perceive bikers as a hindrance in their way.

I wanted to commute by bike to my work, but at the end I gave up, because I didn't want to get hit by a car and risk my life like hardcore bikers do.

Re: Human data shows how we move in cities

#28

Post by ganeumann » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 6:18 PM UTC

Aldo_MX wrote: post #27

I'm from Mexico City, and I'm genuinely surprised by the biking activity. Unfortunately, only in the touristic areas, and near the "Ecobici" routes, there are bike-exclusive lanes. On the other side, drivers feel entitled to use the streets exclusively, and they perceive bikers as a hindrance in their way. I wanted to commute by bike to my work, but at the end I gave up, because I didn't want to get hit by a car and…

I think the bike data must be skewed. I'm from New York and it shows one of the frequent bike routes to be the helix into the Lincoln Tunnel. You could ride a bike on that helix for about twelve seconds before being crushed by a truck.

Re: Human data shows how we move in cities

#29

Post by pveugen » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 6:24 PM UTC

Aldo_MX wrote: post #27

I'm from Mexico City, and I'm genuinely surprised by the biking activity. Unfortunately, only in the touristic areas, and near the "Ecobici" routes, there are bike-exclusive lanes. On the other side, drivers feel entitled to use the streets exclusively, and they perceive bikers as a hindrance in their way. I wanted to commute by bike to my work, but at the end I gave up, because I didn't want to get hit by a car and…

Our tracking accuracy overal is good, but slow motorized transport versus bike rides have the highest error rates. That means that in a small percentage of the cases slow, bumpy car rides might get detected as biking and the other way around. Movement patterns vary quite a bit from city to city, especially for public transport. Users can correct detection errors, but that doesn't catch all cases. We have a slight bias towards cycling.

Re: Human data shows how we move in cities

#30

Post by pveugen » Wed, Jul 02, 2014, 6:30 PM UTC

blocktuw wrote: post #19

Any chance at open sourcing the data? There are other cities that would be interesting to see that are not included in your sample. Are you interested in licensing out use of the data to 3rd parties? So much data!

No concrete plans yet. We never share any personal identifiable data, without explicit consent of our users. So if we would like to make (parts) of our data publicly available, we have to anonymize and aggregate that data first. For now we're focused on our app first.