The Pulse of the City

The incomparable Eric Fischer has made his move into video, showing us the movement of every Muni bus in June all lumped together into one imaginary day:

Watch the video on Eric Fischer's Flickr page

Eric's work is at the forefront of public analysis of transit agency data.  By opening up its bus GPS data, the SFMTA has created a unique environment where smart and creative people like Mr. Fischer have the tools to do what it can't be expected to do itself.  That is to show us our Muni in novel ways that give us unexpected insight into its workings.

What a simple thing to do - to show us a video of where every bus goes in a day - and yet its effect is like the first time Google published a satellite view on its maps.  We now have a whole new perspective from which to view Muni.  Many perspectives, in fact, as Eric continues to come up with new ways to crunch and mash up the raw data to show us something that was never visible before.