Here Is A Gorgeous Visualization Of A Day In The Life Of A New York City Cab Driver

Short version: They drive a lot.

Earlier this year, the data visualization wiz Chris Whong filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the New York City TLC for their taxi data—including start and end locations for each trip and trip prices. He received data for all taxi trips from 2013, a staggering 170 million rides.

And he's done something very cool with it. Whong randomly chose 30 taxis and fed their data for a day into the Google Directions API, allowing him to beautifully visualize a day in the life of a New York cabdriver. Let's take a look at just one:

The cab starts its day with a long trip into Queens.

Then it meanders back into Manhattan.

After a bunch of downtown fares, it finally gets to cross through Central Park.

At rush hour, it gets really, really busy!

As the shift draws to an end, the cab has basically traced most of downtown Manhattan.

So when you think it takes forever to get from one place to another in a cab, remember: The person who's driving it has probably already been there and back, several times that day.

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