Vancouver has the most intersection violation tickets issued

 

Vancouver has the most intersection safety camera violations since 2019 according to RoadSafety BC data.

 The first chart shows all the total tickets given by the intersection safety camera. This includes both red-light violations and speeding violations. It clear that there is 2 times gap before the next major city which is Burnaby. 

In the visual below you can see some major routes that have more than 3 cameras. further down in my post, you can see that the camera is marked on major arterial streets. An example of this King George Blvd which has around 8. The second-biggest being Kingsway which has 7. According to this analysis, this is done from data gathered on what routes have the most traffic 

There are many reasons why Vancouver has the highest number of tickets issued. The first being that a lot of people commute into Vancouver but can live in a different city. This is one of the reasons why Vancouver is almost double the tickets issued in Burnaby. There are many intersections that are in the Vancouver area, this contributes to the number of tickets that are issued. Moreover, Vancouver has the most intersection cameras, so this makes the count be higher.

Late last year, RoadSaftey BC introduced new "speeding" cameras that would be installed in select Lower Mainland intersections. As per this report, it's clear that last year the government wanted to upgrade certain cameras to catch "speeders". This was done over a phased approach. The below two charts show the following information 

• Amount of Intersection Camera's per City 
• The amount of camera upgraded to catch speeders. (Note: My number is less due to not all cameras being active at that time.)

Just from 15 cameras that were operational last year, there were over 7000 tickets issued for speeding alone. The way that was chosen to update the camera depends on many factors. A major one being the location of the intersection. Vancouver has upgraded intersections near major arterial roads and near downtown. This is done since the most amounts of cars travel in those areas. 

Another big reason that the intersections were chosen, was due to the number of crashes that happen at these intersections. Most of the crashes that happen are related to speed. As per this article, one intersection, in particular, that is a problem is Kingsway & Boundry Road. This intersection averages around 168 accidents a year. This camera was one of the first locations that were activated. 

Since there were a lot of intersections within the data, I made a map using Tableau to show a slice of the intersections within Vancouver, I also included a chart showing the top 10 intersections with the number of tickets issued. The map is fully interactive, you can hover over the circles and it will show the number of tickets issued for that intersection. Overall, I think this a good trend to follow over a year. If I had access to the 2020 data, I could have done some time comparisons between data. It would have been interesting to see what COVID had changed these numbers. 

Assignment #4: Data Update 3

Datawrapper Chart

The below is my Datawrapper chart for my data visualization.

Unanswered Question

Currently, I have two questions that I cannot answer with the data that I currently have. I would need to gather another dataset to answer these questions, as with the data that I have it's currently unclear at the moment. The questions are below:

1. How were the locations chosen for the select speed-violation cameras?
2. Why does Vancouver have the most violations compared to other major cities of Surrey, Burnaby, and Richmond?

How would you get the data?

For me to answer the first question above, I would need to make an FOI request to RoadSaftey BC. Since I am dealing with a government department, it would be better for me to make an FOI request, rather me asking someone directly. Since the Intersection Saftey Camera program is done by RoadSaftey BC its the best to ask them. For me to answer the second question, I would need to ask ICBC to see why Vancouver is higher on the list. I would first try to ask ICBC public relations department directly, to see if I gather the data that way, if that does not work, I would need to make an FOI request to ICBC. 

JRNL 3165 - Assignment #2: Data Update 2

 Lead: 

According to the data gathered by the BC government, Vancouver has the most intersection traffic tickets issued in one year. 

Excel Workbook & Explanation

This is the link to my worksheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wxWq9N5W-rLHzXDF4lS4RvbuWk3C6qfh/view?usp=sharing

It includes a total of  4 sheets within the workbook. The original data, a pivot table, the filtered data to analyze, and a small data slice. The original data is gathered from the BC data catalog.  The data has the following fields:

• Municipality - Which city the tickets belongs to 

•  Location - The intersection of where the traffic camera is located 

•  Speed VTs - Total amount of tickets issued to cars speeding through the intersection 

•  Red Light VTs - Total amount of tickets issued to cars running through the intersection while the traffic light is red 

•  Total VTs - Total tickets issued to that location. Includes both Speed and Red Light

NOTE: Some of the Speed VTs are blank, as those locations do not detect speeding infractions.  

I decided to get a pivot table that analyzes total tickets issued by the municipality.  This will give the reader a small insight into the data that is provided in my "Data Slice." This gives a good overall into what the data slice is going to show. 

My main data slices include the fields that are mentioned above. The only difference is that they only show the Total VTs for simplicity's sake. As per Update 1, I had to change some of the questions that I had presented due to the fact that they were more "Why" questions that would come from outside the data provided.

Original Dataset Link:

Link to the original dataset: https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/intersection-safety-camera-violation-tickets-by-locationa Catalogue (gov.bc.ca)

News Story:

Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/cameras-speeders-red-light-violators-1.5517737 operational 

This article is from CBC news stating that now more red-light traffic cameras are being upgraded to catch speeders. This automated system sends out tickets to people that go above the posted limit through an intersection. Last year, only 35 cameras were active, this year that is going to increase a lot more to catch speeders. 

JRNL 3165 - Assignment #2: Data Update 1

Question 1. "What dataset will you use for your final report?  (title of your dataset, include a link to it and claim it at  the URL above)."

 Answer: For the final project I will be using the dataset "Intersection Safety Camera Violation Tickets by  Location". This dataset is from the BC Data Catalogue. The link to access the data is listed below:   https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/intersection-safety-camera-violation-tickets-by-locationa Catalogue (gov.bc.ca)

Question 2. Describe the dataset. What kind of data does it contain?

 Answer: The dataset includes the intersection location for the traffic camera. The data is also split into two different types of tickets. The first one being "Red Light Violations" and the other being "Speed Violation". The dataset finally includes the municipality of where the intersection is located. The data is broken into numbers, which showcases the number of tickets that have been given at that location. This dataset begins in 2019.  

Question 3: Is there anything about the dataset that you don't understand? (i.e. what a column heading means). How will you find this out?

Answer: Currently the dataset is very clear, the column headings are very clear. The headings clearly show what data is in that column. The only issue I have is that I am unsure if the totals for the tickets include both a speeding ticket and a red light violation. I will look into ICBC's website to see if you get tickets for both or just one. This is the only concern with the data I have at the moment.  

 Question 4: What are some questions you hope to answer with your data? List at least three. (you don't need the answers at this point.)

Answer: Currently, the three questions that I have for my data are the following: 

1. Which intersection has the most red-light tickets. Why is that intersection?
2. Since the speed cameras are fairly new, why did they choose only those intersections to place them in? 
3. Which municipalities have the most offenses? 

     

        

JRNL 3165 - Assignment #1: Data Visualization Analysis

 

"The Changing Nature of Middle-Class Jobs annotated"

As one piece this graph does a poor job of explaining the data that it references. This chart gives a rough idea of how job trends have changed for certain fields over time. The graph has two different colors that signify male and female. 

This graphic does not correctly show data at first glance. It's hard to make out the scale that the system is using. Also, it's not clear on the bottom of the +/- on the data. I find that the graph's scale could be more scaled. This is pointed out where its a major gap in the data, and one goes higher than the other.  I also find it hard to ask a simple question, such as "What major changes were observed from 1980 till 2012".

Below are some things that could make this graph be more clear:

• In annotation "A", it shows the number of job changes as a single number, while the scale goes by 1000, so for example 20 means 20,000. Also since each section has multiple lines, it's unclear now which profession has got an increase in jobs. 
• Annotation "B" shows both a -/+  under the job info, I find this confusing as the graph goes up and down in each category. I wish they had used a more clear indication that the graph was going up or down in that section.
• Lastly, annotation "C" uses a scale to indicate "red" being female(s) and "blue" is for male(s). The part in the middle of the legend is not clear if it is showing the split between female and male. I wish that this was more clear, so if someone was looking at this graph, they would find it hard to figure. 

Overall, I think the visualization looks really nice and organized in a nice to read format. Since the graph uses different colors to distringuish the differences it makes the graph more clear to read at a glance, it also gathers your attention more quickly. This graph is interactive, which I something that I enjoy, as you can hover your mouse cursor over each line to see what job that line refers to. Lastly, I feel that this graph gives you a good overview of the major job sectors and each of the jobs that fall in that section. I think the visual is very good but it does need some improvements made to make it easier to read.