I live in a very walkable city that has plenty of access to nearby public transportation. I am a cyclist who enjoys riding. I am also a car owner who takes advantage of my car to get from place to place. Analyzing the destinations, distances, and times of day when I’ve traveled over a 1-week period, which methods of travel do I tend to use most? And which factors guide my decisions when choosing?

My dataset

This exploration of the quantified self was an exercise in awareness and self-reflection. Creating the dataset to document my day-to-day travels required attention, memory, and focus. The notation of when I left my starting point, how far I traveled and for how long, and then when I arrived at my destination commanded as much accuracy as was possible in the moment, when this was an option. Depending upon my state of mind and circumstances (as well as ability to stay on task), there were many trips if not whole days where I resorted to recording the best estimates I could provide, many hours afterwards. I relied upon a system of unstructured data, for example, to safely and accurately track my car trips by using my phone to take snapshots of the odometer at times of departure and arrival, using subtraction in order to calculate duration and distance for that trip. After my walks, I referred to Google Maps to determine the distance between two points. Distances for subway rides proved the most elusive, since there was no resource that could help me calculate the actual distance of the unique path of these underground trains, which is not documented by something like Google. Therefore, I relied upon a 0.53 mile rule-of-thumb estimated average distance between NYC subway stations, and multiplied this by the number of stations in the entire trip. I defined the most useful variables that would help me determine the method and frequency of my travels, each a uniquely numbered “trip”. The start time noted my departure of a location, the end time the arrival; each side of the trip was given a location name. This allowed me to calculate the duration of the trip, as well as time of day. The most important variable, transportation method, would be the key to the key finding of this project: which was the most relied upon way of getting from place to place during this week?

How did I generally get around?

It was important to analyze the number of trips per day, as well as where I found myself going most. As a parent of two school-age children, a fair part of my day is dedicated to dropping off and pickup up at school. Other portions of the day are occupied by errands such as food shopping and appointments. Then there were leisure activities – going to restaurants, meeting friends. NYC is a huge city, and my home borough of Brooklyn the most populated. One of the strategies that New Yorkers take for granted is knowing the best, and most importantly, quickest way to get somewhere. Public transportation offers subway, bus, train, even boat. Depending upon the distance needed to travel, walking is always an option for those who are able. And the added privilege and luxury of car ownership adds yet further freedom. With all of these available to me, I took stock of how my week was broken down by methods of transportation. I was not surprised to learn very early on that walking was by far the most commonly used method.

Basic Trip Breakdown

For this project, I diligently tracked every single one of my travels for an entire 7-day survey period. Seeing as how I don’t have a subway station right outside my stoop, any occasion that warranted a train ride, this meant a minimum of two walks of 0.6 miles (there and back) was a guarantee for each day. (The same goes for reaching the destination by train. Most likely there was still an additional walking trip before getting to where I needed to go.) Depending upon where I needed to go, the bike, subway, or car was used more frequently. Day by day, I broke out how many of each method of transportation was chosen by # of trips.

Okay, how far was I going?

Walking is great, provided that a number of criteria made it a reasonable option. What was the weather like at the time? Was it light or dark out? Who was I travelling with? And most importantly, how far away was my destination? If I knew I had a destination that was 15 miles away, the likelihood of choosing to walk would decrease in proportion to the distance of the destination. On the other hand, living in Brooklyn, it’s practically out of the question to drive if your destination happens to be in the traffic-laden, toll-subject area of Manhattan. The chart below shows how my furthest trips favored the subway method whenever a range of 5-15 miles was called for. Automobile usage accounted for most trips between 1.4 and 3.9 miles. For the remainder, walking and cycling would come into play for distances of typically 1 mile or less.

What did my days look like?

It would be informative to count how many trips I was taking each day, what kind of trips, and how long these trips were taking. Broken down into days of the week, I could see my busiest days were at the end of the week, namely Thursday & Friday, where I not only took the most trips, but also took the longest lasting trips. (I was out and about quite a bit more.) The weekend days were quieter, with less trips, but also relatively less walking by comparison. Filtering out the transportation type below sheds light into which days I drove, walked, and cycled most. By isolating the day, the story unfolds for which transportation methods were least used, and for how long.

Where Was I Going?

All this running around – of what significance were these trips? To better judge my chosen transportation method, I looked at my day-by-day destinations, what I chose, and how many trips were made to these places.

Conclusion

I’d like to think I live a life of relative calm and purpose. I also like to think that I have more free time than I really do. Reflecting on this data made me conscious of where I journey to most, and which ways I choose to get there. Initially, this project was intended to survey only the automobile trips I was taking, in the hopes of assessing whether or not I really needed to drive to the locations that were, truthfully, very geographically close to my home. One of the reasons I appreciate living in this busy crowded city is that it is very easy to get around without having to drive. Most of the trips I took could’ve been done by car, but I was pleased to affirm that my world, however small it may be, is highly walkable and therefore allows me to curb the carbon footprint as much as possible. (Except for when my kids don’t feel like walking to school, or it’s not an alternate side parking day, or when it’s raining, or I just don’t feel like it…)