An Animation of the World's Transit Systems

"A German university student has developed a fun new tool for visualizing public transit in a more system-oriented way," according to a post by Sam Sturgis.

1 minute read

May 20, 2015, 6:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Paris Metro Train

eska2005 / Shutterstock

According to Sam Sturgis's explanation, Transit Visualization Client, or TRAVIC, "takes public data from 249 transportation networks, across five continents, and puts them onto one, animated map." The animation runs on the schedules of the transit systems, so it's not displaying real time conditions. TRAVIC does, however, provide a broad, birds-eye view of the circulatory system of these cities, while also inviting comparison between the characteristics of transit systems around the world.

Sturgis provides analysis of the Washington, D.C. animation as well as sharing the discussion TRAVIC prompted in the city of Melbourne, Australia, as written in a separate article by Liam Mannix. Sturgis also provides GIFs of the animation for the cities of Sao Paulo, Brazil; Mexico City, Mexico; London, U.K.; Manhattan, New York; and Frankfurt, Germany.

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