That people from all surrounding counties funnel into our tiny peninsula tip city every day is probably something you already knew well enough. So much so that a hypnotic GIF representing commuters as effervescent colored bubbles coming in and out like the tide every few seconds might be superfluous.
But such a thing exists anyway, and good luck taking your eyes off of it.
The hypnotic animated commuter map uses data from the US Census’ American Community Survey study released earlier this year. It's the work of Mark Evans, an app designer from the Detroit region who evidently loves both data and dancing colored spots.
The dots are color coded for their county of origin, and their relative size tells you roughly how many people they represent every day. Pause the map and click on any given dot to get more info about who it represents. With enough time on your hands, you may even manage to single out which cluster you’re in.
Although so far folks have mostly been paying attention to San Francisco County, Evans’ site has similarly contracting and expanding data sets for every county in America. Apparently, 25 adventurous souls commute from San Jose to Napa every day, while four make the 99 miles trek from Santa Rosa to the South Bay.
- ACS Commute Maps [BigBytes]
- Commuter Data Visualization [BigBytes]
- Map Shows Where All Commuters Call Home [SFist]