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.