Exploring spatiotemporal characteristics of intra-urban trips using metro smartcard records

Understanding the characteristics of intra-urban trips is essential to get a deep insight of the dynamic aspects of urban system and to make urban planning. We explore the spatiotemporal patterns of human intra-urban trips using metro smartcard records of Shenzhen city. Through statistics of millions of smartcard records, we found that the intra-urban trips: (a) have two significant peak hours over day; (b) are different between weekday and weekend; and (c) have significant periodicity. The temporal patterns owe to the living and working habit of the inhabitants. The result also shows that passengers' volumes, as well as the spatiotemporal patterns, are various for different stations, due to the land uses around stations. The method shows that metro smartcard records provide a powerful approach to understanding the dynamic of urban system.