Sunday 11 April 2010

Manchester Commuter Inflows

A short post today on visualizing commuting flows. I've used some 3D GIS techniques to create a commuting surface for the North West of England (based on wards). Areas with peaks represent high in-commuting. Manchester dominates the North West pattern, as seen below.

I added in flow lines to this map in order to see which 'peaks' were being by-passed on the way to Manchester, and from where. The lines on the map below represent flows of 25 or more from individual wards in the North West. Not a huge number per ward, but it all adds up. When you think of how many people are doing this and how far they come it is significant however...

This is only really a rough draft, but it does communicate quite a bit of information and it tells a familiar story of urban commuting. Click on the map to see it in full size.