Data scientist, software engineer, and analyst Todd W. Schneider recently published an incredibly in-depth and comprehensive article that uses publicly-accessible New York City taxi trip data and Citi Bike trip data to determine which service will get you from origin to destination fastest at various points throughout the day.
Every day in New York City, millions of commuters take part in a giant race to determine transportation supremacy. Cars, bikes, subways, buses, ferries, and more all compete against one another, but we never get much explicit feedback as to who “wins.” I’ve previously written about NYC’s public taxi data and Citi Bike share data, and it occurred to me that these datasets can help identify who’s fastest, at least between cars and bikes. In fact, I’ve built an interactive guide that shows when a Citi Bike is faster than a taxi, depending on the route and the time of day.
As you would expect, Citi Bike is mostly faster if the trip distance is short, or if the time of day is a heavy-traffic one. Check out the full writeup to play around with the interactive map, see dozens of charts and data analyses, trends over time, or to learn about the raw data collection and methodology of the comparison.
Matt Coneybeare
Editor in Chief
Matt enjoys exploring the City's with his partner and son. He is an avid marathon runner, and spends most of his time eating, running, and working on cool stuff.
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