Origins & Destinations data in Metroview is a quick and easy way to identify mobility patterns across your area of interest. The toolset also allows for deep exploration of the active transportation relationships between different areas of your region.
Origins
After navigating to the Origins and Destinations view in the Maps tab, the map will load with an orange hexagonal overlay. The hexagonal grid used for Origins and Destinations data in Metroview is built using the standard H3 grid system. H3 is an open-source geospatial indexing system that partitions the world into hexagonal cells.
While there are larger hexagons visible at larger scales, those serve as a placeholder and visual indicator of the data available. After zooming in, smaller hexagons become visible and are set to a static scale with their locations unaffected by zooming and panning. The hexagons use H3 resolution 8 and each covers on average 0.74 square kilometers or 0.28 square miles. The shade of each hexagon represents the number of unique trips originating from that area.
The filters on the lower-left corner of the screen can fine-tune the map data to show:
- Commutes or Leisure trips
- Time of day
- Morning: 5am - 10am
- Midday: 10am - 3pm
- Evening: 3pm - 8pm
- Overnight: 8pm - 5am
- Weekdays or Weekends
- Specific months or years
By using the filters in conjunction with one another, you can identify the morning commute origin areas for weekdays in 2021, as seen in the image below.
After clicking on an origin hexagon, the summary panel on the right side will generate a list of top destinations associated with the selected origin. The selected origin is now outlined in orange, and the associated destinations are purple. Summary details include the average (mean) duration and distance of those trips.
By clicking on one of the associated destinations, the panel on the right will update with even more information around the trips including the times of day, days of the week, and weeks of the year. Now, the origin is shown in orange, and the selected destination is in purple.
To return to the map showing the top associated destinations, click on the X in the right side panel next to the destination hexagon name. You’ll return to the page with the selected origin outlined in orange and the associated destinations in purple.
If you’d then like to return to only showing origins, click on the X in the right side panel once more (the X is next to the origin name). From here, you’ll be able to start the process again by selecting new origins to drill into.
Destinations
The same types of analyses can be performed by changing the Hex Type from Origins to Destinations. By doing so, the map will update to show the most common destinations in the area. Here the shade of purple represents the volume of trips ending in the hexagon, with a darker color indicating more trips.
Once again, you can filter the map data by using the selection buttons on the lower left side of the screen.
If you click a destination hex, a list of top origins will appear in the ride side panel. This works great for determining where people may be commuting from on their way to a Central Business District. As shown in the image below, the selected destination is now outlined in purple, and the associated origins are orange.
In this example the dark orange hexagon to the northwest has been identified as top origin. By clicking that hexagon, the panel on the right will update with even more information around the trips including the times of day, days of the week, and weeks of the year.
By clicking on one of the associated origins, the panel on the right will update with even more information around the trips including the times of day, days of the week, and weeks of the year. Now, the destination is shown in purple, and the selected origin is in orange.
You can deselect the hexagon and return to the list of top origins by clicking the “X” button. By clicking the “X” once more you can return to the map view of destinations.
The data provided in the Origins & Destinations tool is subject to the same privacy and aggregation standards as the other features in the Strava Metro platform. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us.