Day: 2011-03-08

Oyster Flowprint

| David Levinson

From Anil Bawa-Cavia and Urbagram, The Oyster Flowprint. Oyster is the London transit payment system. The movie shows the flows on the system across the day.

This Oyster flowprint visualises trips made using London’s RFID transport card on the London Underground on a typical weekday. Each trail is an individual passenger making a trip, tapping their card at an origin and destination. The actual routes taken are inferred using a simple shortest path algorithm. The animation uses a 5% sample of passengers on the network made available as a Transport for London Data Feed.
Activity on the network is charted along the bottom of the graphic. The double-humped dynamics typical of commuting are evident, and these constitute the characteristic signature of the living city. Twice a day the flowprint expands and contracts, sending its tendrils deep into North London; the diurnal ‘pulse’ of the city in action.
Synchronisation of travel during the morning rush hour, with a steep ramp in activity peaking at 8:40AM, is much greater than during the afternoon, which sees a much broader peak in activity, with people leaving work at a range of times. The afternoon rush hour doesn’t subside until after 7pm, evidence perhaps of Londoner’s love of an after-work pint.

Oyster Flowprint from Anil Bawa-Cavia on Vimeo.

Group Pushes For Light Rail Station Shutdown

| David Levinson

From WBAL (h/t Greater Greater Washington) Group Pushes For Light Rail Station Shutdown: MTA Says It’s Working With Police To Address Crime Concerns
I am not sure if this is a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It surely seems this should be a solvable problem. It also seems the LRT did not inspire any redevelopment, given the adjoining land uses.

BALTIMORE — A group of Linthicum residents is pushing for the shutdown of the light rail station there, citing an attempted murder at the station about three weeks ago.
Local police are working with the Maryland Transit Administration to address safety concerns, but Cosentino said the station just doesn’t work.
“The community has its concerns, and we want to be good neighbors.”
– MTA’s Terry Owens
“There’s no parking, it’s not well-lit at all,” he said. “It’s basically in a gulley, for the lack of a better word.”
The MTA said it is looking at alternatives, but offers a different view of crime at the station itself.
“Our data suggests that we don’t have any real problems at all at the Linthicum station,” said spokesman Terry Owens. “But that’s beside the point. The community has its concerns, and we want to be good neighbors.
“We want to do whatever we can to work with the community to address their concerns.”
Cosentino said he and his supporters don’t plan to drop their stance against the station.
“We mean business,” he said. “We don’t want this thing to die down.”
Residents suggest that the nearby stop in North Linthicum is safer, saying that it’s better lit and has plenty of parking.