Jay Patel

Viewer's Choice - Chicago's Mobility

Visual Link



This data will show a varying amount of information about Chicago and its mobility for example its roads and their quality and busy hours, or how much access the people have to public transport. It is a useful infographic that both people that are working to better the mobility, and people
that utilize the roads and transit regularly.

sorry cannot be displayed!


This map shows the congestion of all the major highways in chicago at any given time throughout the day.
It gives the average speed traveled as a way to check traffic. Given that it is tough to track traffic certain times of the day,
this makes it a lot more effeicient. The only thing that this map is lacking is that while the colors are distinct, the
traffic amount is still hard to differentiate. It becomes an issue when you are really trying to look indepth because you cannot
zoom in any farther than this image shows.

sorry cannot be displayed!



This map will show the quality of the roads depending on the method of transport for example
this map shows the quality for bikers in a given area. Years range from 2002 to 2013
While this is a good way to show the averages of road quality in an area, it does not help those that
wish to see specific road qualtiy data. While it is unnecessary to map out quality for every road, it would
be nice to see the main highways and main roads mapped out.

sorry cannot be displayed!
sorry cannot be displayed!


These two images show the bridges that have been built, the year they have been built,
and the number of bridges that are in not so good quality. what is nice about this map is
that bridges are stationary and immovable. They do not extend too long, and will always be
in a certain spot making them easy to graph using nodes like this map has. However,
this information seems rather irrelevant as it only shows the year it was built. What is usefull
is that it also shows the bridges that are deemed not structuraly sound.

sorry cannot be displayed! sorry cannot be displayed! sorry cannot be displayed!


These images show the areas that have access to public transport,the ridership of them,
and how well they are maintained. The first image is very hard to read at first glance.
the more dots there are, the easier the public transport is accessed. As we can see, it is much more
in the city, rightfully so. public transport during rush hour is much faster in chicago than in the suburbs.
The second image shows the ridership. This graph is particularly interesting because it shows you everything you would
want to if you are looking to see how many people check into this stop on a given day. It shows the L train ridership
as well as the metra ridership. As the image shows, UIC Halsted had 5,851 boardings per weekday on average.(this does not count
people getting off) Only downside is that it does not show statistics for the bus. The bottom image is not a graph or map, but
it shows the qualtiy of the transit system. For example the fare collection system and other equipment related to it are lower in
qualtiy at 69%

Why is this an important visual?


This data shows the progress of Chicago over the years. For example it shows projections
for future years and sets a goal of where they need to be. It also gives the public an idea
of where their city is at in terms of their need to get from point A to point B. While very simple
it does help people viewing it with an intent to help the city. It gives them an idea of what places
need work and what places can be held off on for now. It will help in budgeting as well overall effectiveness
for the average consumer. Tax dollars and fare prices are generally what keeps the transport and roads running, so it is
important that it is looked over properly.

Positives:

- The colors are vibrant, and they are set apart from the background
- The legend is concise and there is a help button for each visual
- There is interactivity, but not too much to the point it is overwhleming
it is just the right amount only giving you the option to tweak what you would
actually need to tweak with purpose.

Negatives:

- The Congestion map is hard to read on certain parts of the listed highways
- Some years of data is unavailable depeding on county and year even though others might have it
- Some maps do not provide the option to zoom in
- Not all maps have the option to retreive further information upon clicking a point on the map

Possible improvements?

- Less graphic demanding interface given how simple the data projection is compared to others
- Provide more insight on certain areas of the maps
- Perhaps expand beyond just Chicago?