Auckland public transport: the movie

Infographics? Chris McDowall has made a few but not too few to mention. Check out his website. Hexagonal maps of New Zealand’s political geography? Check. The imperfect storm? Check.  Uncertain cartographies? Check.  Maps of NZ-related Wikipedia articles? Check. I’ve always liked maps but these are something else.

Especially this animated map of Auckland’s public transport network, showing the activity of trains, buses and ferries:

An animated map of Auckland's public transport network from Chris McDowall on Vimeo.

McDowall says: 

The animation begins at 3am on a typical Monday morning. A pair of blue squiggles depict the Airport buses shuttling late night travellers between the Downtown Ferry Terminal and Auckland International. From 5am, a skeleton service of local buses begins making trips from the outer suburbs to the inner city and the first ferry departs for Waiheke Island. Over the next few hours the volume and frequency of vehicles steadily increases until we reach peak morning rush hour. By 8am the city’s major transportation corridors are clearly delineated by a stream of buses filled with commuters. After 9am the volume of vehicles drops a little and stays steady until the schools get out and the evening commute begins. The animation ends at midnight with just a few night buses moving passengers away from the central city. 

Some things to note: 

* The steady pulse of the Devonport Ferry.

* The speed at which buses hurtle down the Northern Motorway’s new bus lanes. 

* The interplay between buses and ferries on Waiheke Island.

* The sheer mind-boggling complexity of the system.

So here is Jeff Beck with “A Day in the Life”, Jason Rebello on keyboards, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums and Tal Wilkenfeld on bass, from the DVD Live at Ronnie Scott’s: