Visualizing the Dynamics of London's Bicycle-Hire Scheme

Abstract

Visualizing flows between origins and destinations can be straightforward when dealing with small numbers of journeys or simple geographies. Lines embedded in geographic space have commonly been used in mapping transport flows, especially when geographic patterns are important, as they are when characterizing cities or managing transportation. For larger numbers of flows, however, this approach requires careful design to avoid problems of occlusion, salience bias, and information overload. Driven by the requirements identified by users and managers of the London Bicycle Hire scheme, we present three methods of representation of bicycle-hire use and travel patterns. Flow maps with curved flow symbols are used to show overviews in flow structures. Gridded views of docking-station locations that preserve geographic relationships are used to explore docking-station status over space and time in a graphically efficient manner. Origin–Destination maps that visualize the OD matrix directly while maintaining geographic context are used to provide visual details on demand. We use these approaches to identify changes in travel behaviour over space and time, to aid station rebalancing, and to provide a framework for incorporating travel modelling and simulation.