Watch New Yorkers Hurry Across Union Square in Real-Time

In week leading up to Winter Storm Jonas, pedestrian activity in Central Park was low. On the Sunday afterward, it jumped back up, as New Yorkers headed there to frolic in the snow. Times Square and Union Square, meanwhile, didn’t see too much of a drop in foot traffic during the blizzard, according to Placemeter, a start-up that uses algorithms to extract data about urban life from video feeds and sensors around the city.

Previously, the company tracked pedestrian movement around the city after it had already taken place. But now the Placemeter team has created a map that makes it possible to do so in real-time for a busy intersection at Union Square. Unlike a graph or a chart showing that activity over time, a real-time map allows people to actually see a flurry of activity as it’s happening, David Fine, the product marketing manager at Placemeter, tells CityLab.