Futuristic map depicts London bike routes

New Scientist : A short video depicting bike travel in London as lines of light moving across a black screen looks something like the evolution of the cosmos. To create the animation, visualization specialist Jo Wood of City University London used data from the first 5 million trips made by cyclists participating in London’s Barclays Cycle Hire scheme, which launched in July 2010. In the short clip, the least traveled routes fade out and the more frequently traveled ones become brighter. The resulting map shows three commuter hot spots: around and through Hyde Park in the west, in and out of King’s Cross and St. Pancras stations in the north, and between Waterloo station and the city’s financial district in the east, writes Douglas Heaven for New Scientist. Planners hope to use the data to improve route planning and placement of docking stations and thereby ease people’s commutes.