Metrorail Travel Patterns Revealed

Sam Winward explains a series of maps he made that show how people use the Metrorail system in the Washington, D.C. region.

I used WMATA's ridership data to identify “Home” and “Work” stations based on individual ridership patterns. If a commuter leaves one station most mornings and returns to the same station in the afternoon, then this is their “Home” station. Their “Work” station is where they traveled to in the morning and left from in the afternoon.

And voilà: a series of maps that allows an exploration of the commute patterns of an entire region.

Winward made the maps available to share, but you'll have to click though to the original article to more about the methodology, how to use the map, and some of the conclusions Winward draws from the data visualization.