Follow a Real New York Taxi's Daily Slog

To stand on a downtown Manhattan street corner is to be immersed in a ruckus of taxis, all madly gunning around like a school of mechanical fish. If you were to pick one from the group and ride it for a day, where exactly in the big, busy city might you go?

Chris Whong, a self-described "data junkie" from New York, has answered that question with a mesmerizing visualization, "NYC Taxis: A Day in the Life." He took a huge amount of ridership data for 2013—seriously, he had to give the city a new hard drive to obtain it—and then plotted a random sampling of 30 cabs' journeys over 24-hour periods. His model includes the number of passengers the taxis pick up as well as their daily earnings, which from the three I've viewed topped out at $491, $656, and $679. (Tips were not included unless paid by credit card.)