Visualizing Transportation Flows with Mode Split using Glyphs

Abstract

The increasing trend of using unconventional data in urban planning environments has led to the need for developing systems that can visualize this data. Here we present a visualization for studying commuting flows within a city, with a particular focus on the distribution of mode of transportation usage. Our design, called ModalCell, uses a glyph-based flow map to show a city's flows considering mode split, direction, and distance range. We evaluate ModalCell with a pilot survey and a use case that shows the potential of the approach to make flows within a city visible and understandable.