Fun Maps: Citi Bike Data Visualizations from the first 100 Days

This week we’re going to stretch  the breadth of the Fun Maps column out a bit. Foursquare designer, Zack Davenport and co-founder of Etch, Inc. Michael Yap took the first 100 days of public Citi Bike data and made some incredible graphics with them–and one map! Below are just a few images from their collection, “The First 100 Days: A look back on New York City’s first-ever bicycle share program“.

We know Citi Bike is the biggest bike share nationally, but how does it compare globally?

The answer is, it’s pretty small so far, but it has plans to expand to up to 10,000 bikes. Interestingly, even with far fewer bikes and docks, NYC beats out London for average number of trips taken each day.

Though not pictured here, the set includes a series of graphics that show whose money and how much is at stake in the project. They break down the (quite complicated) financing structure of the program, and what the costs of the program were, which is more intriguing than it sounds. Who knew the docks and kiosks would cost more than double the actual bikes?

It’s especially surprising because the design of the bikes is so high tech. “It’s incredible to think about how much design consideration and technology has been baked into these bikes—GPS tracking, RFID, power generation and storage—and the cost per unit: $1,115,” said Yap, ” When will these features begin to trickle down into those available our local bike shops?”

We can call this a “map of the bike”. Some features you may not have known about:

• The bikes’ tires are filled with nitrogen.
• The bikes have bag racks instead of baskets to prevent them from filling with garbage.
• The bikes all have GPS and RFID tags that collect data constantly which is later published on the Citi Bike website.
• The bikes collect and store energy created by the motion of the bike.

Here’s a map’s map showing the most frequently used docks in the city. Union Square is the most popular followed by the Flatiron District. Perhaps their popularity is due to their central locations and proximity to other modes of transit. We would be interested to know about the popularity distribution in Brooklyn as well, where there are far less docks than in Manhattan.

This graphic is pretty unbelievable, especially considering that this is only in 100 days of ridership where trips average only about 19 minutes.

This one we can call a map of frequency over time. Apparently heatwaves don’t deter too many bikers but Labor Day barbeques do!

You can see the entire collection, “The First 100 Days: A look back on New York City’s first-ever bicycle share program” here, check out more beautiful graphic design by Zack Davenport here, and Michael Yap’s incredibly cool maps-out-of-Foursquare-data here.

See more maps in our Fun Maps Column. Get in touch with the author at @youngzokeziah.