Taxi GPS data helps researchers study Hurricane Sandy’s effect on NYC traffic

“The first step was to figure out from the data what is normal,” Dan Work, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois said. “There is a heartbeat pattern to the city every single day. In the middle of the night when traffic is light, you can get from one side of the city to another very quickly, and every morning during rush hour the roads are congested. The data shows us the typical heartbeat, and then we look for the arrhythmia.“

Source: sciencedaily.com