NYC Riders is a striking animated map that visualizes the 4.3 million NYC subway trips taken on an average Wednesday in September 2025. The map uses scaled circles to show trains moving on the network based on the MTA timetable. The size of the circles is determined by how many (estimated) passengers are on each train.
As you watch the animation unfold, the daily rhythm of the city becomes visible. At 2:00 AM, the trains appear as tiny colored dots while most of the city sleeps. By 8:00 AM, at the height of the morning rush, those dots swell significantly, signaling heavy ridership across nearly every line. The circles shrink slightly midday before expanding again for the evening commute.
In truth, NYC Riders may not be the most efficient way to visualize ridership by time of day; a simple bar chart would likely provide a clearer snapshot of the MTA’s peak and off-peak hours. However, an animated map is far more engaging, offering a geographic depth that a chart cannot provide. It allows users to see not just when the network is busy, but exactly where passengers are concentrated throughout the day.
Via: Datawrapper's Data Viz Dispatch
