Visuals only viewed on desktop
Although I began driving earlier, I only started logging data in October 2024. For this project, I have used a focused slice of that data: trips from November 2022 to March 2025. This decision allowed me to balance meaningful insights with time constraints. More than that, it gave me a way to pause and look back before deciding how to move forward.
My Journey Through Vancouver
I moved to Canada in 2021. Alongside the adjustments to work, culture, and weather, there was something simpler I missed, that was driving. In India, it had been my way of unwinding, a space for solitude and spontaneity. That changed in October 2022, when I earned my Class 5 license. With it came more than permission to drive, that gave me back a part of myself.
What followed was not just driving but also documenting. Every journey, whether long, short, routine, or spontaneous, became part of a growing dataset. Although I began driving earlier, I only started logging data in October 2024. However, for this project, I have only used a part of that data, as I continue to log trips as they come. With 163 trips between November 2022 and March 2025, covering a total of 8,337 kilometers, the data is more than just numbers. It is a story where each data point reflects a choice, a mood, or a moment in transition. These trips, when placed on a map, begin to reveal the broader rhythm of how and where I moved over time.
Before You Begin: How To Read This Story
This project uses interactive data visualizations to help you explore how my travel habits evolved over time. Each visual has color-coded categories as follows:
Leisure
Trips for exploring, from senic drives to weekend getaways
Meeting
To connect with friends and colleagues,
often social in nature.
Work
Travel for work, including commutes, site visits, or work-related errands.
You can interact with the charts by hovering over them to reveal details, or by clicking to isolate data, and scroll to explore patterns.
Charting the Journey
The first visualization in this project is a map that shows all 163 trips across the Greater Vancouver Area and beyond. It is more than just routes and roads. It captures the rhythm of my life over three years.
The map acts like a living journal. It shows how my driving habits evolved with time and confidence. What started as cautious loops around familiar streets eventually became weekend adventures and out-of-city explorations.
Distances are aggregated across all trips to each location.
Highlights:
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There was a clear spike in trips after October 2022.
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In 2023, I began venturing farther, especially during weekends.
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By 2024, the scope expanded beyond the city. Lillooet, Kamloops, and farther destinations became part of the mix.
How The Reasons Changed
Not all trips are made for the same reason. Some were for work, others to meet people, and many were for the joy of driving itself. This timeline visual tracks how the reasons behind my trips changed over time.
These changes were not random. They mirrored shifts in my life, including new friends, job transitions, or a simple desire to explore more. In 2022, the mix was balanced because I was just starting out. By 2024, I had built a rhythm. Leisure took priority not because I had more free time, but because I had learned to make time for it.
Highlights:
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In 2023, meeting-related trips peaked (27 in total), showing how work and collaboration shaped my movement.
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Leisure became dominant in 2024 with 51 trips. This was a big shift from earlier patterns.
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Work travel remained consistently low and was often shadowed by personal or social journeys.
Seasons On The Road
This bubble chart visualizes the intensity and purpose of travel by month. The size of each bubble indicates how many trips I took, and the color shows the reason behind them.
Spring was about new beginnings and professional obligations. Summer brought friends, sunshine, and the road. Fall balanced the two, while winter became quieter. These cycles align with my academic and personal timelines, revealing how external structures influence our movement more than we realize.
Highlights:
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May and July stand out with large leisure-driven bubbles. The summer pull was real.
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Spring 2023 was dominated by meetings, possibly tied to networking as I actively entered the job market.
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Winter months, especially December, saw fewer trips. These were mostly solo and out to meet people.
Purpose Behind Every Drive
The Sankey diagram in this section breaks down every trip by its purpose. This is where the data gets personal. It shows not just what I did, but why I did it.
Home was almost always the start or end point. That is not just a logistical detail. It says something about the structure of life in a new country. It shows that while the reasons for leaving may vary, we all return to the familiar. For me, that place was home, and it was from there that every exploration began.
Highlights:
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Leisure accounted for the largest share of trips and distance.
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Meeting trips formed the second-largest category and were often linked to short, city-bound journeys.
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Work was the smallest category but was still present across the timeline.
Beyond The City
Not all trips stayed within the city limits. This radial Sankey chart shows which destinations I visited, how often I returned, and what kind of trips they were.
This visual captures the spirit of exploration. It shows how driving extended my sense of what was local. The places I visited reflect a growing curiosity and a willingness to go farther for a view, a meal, or a memory. The consistency of return to some places also reflects comfort, routine, and emotional connection.
Highlights:
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Leisure trips dominated the dataset, with most being solo and spread evenly across locations. This shows how driving became a personal retreat and a flexible escape, whether within or outside Vancouver.
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Shared trips were rare overall, but when they did occur, they were mostly leisure-focused and tended to go outside Vancouver, suggesting group outings or weekend getaways with friends.
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Solo driving was the default, cutting across all purposes and destinations. This aligns with how driving functioned for me as an independent and often introspective activity.
Flow Of Purpose: How Trips Unfolded Across Company and Distance
Each trip had a reason. Some planned, others spontaneous. This Sankey chart maps all 163 drives from purpose to travel type to destination, beginning with Leisure, Meeting, and Work, then moving through Solo or Shared travel, and ending at destinations either within or outside the city limits.
Most trips were solo, often tied to routines or personal time. What stood out were the shared work drives that I had forgotten about until the data revealed them, blurring the lines between personal and professional.
Highlights:
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The thickest streams in the chart flow through the Solo category, showing that most drives whether for leisure, meetings, or work were taken alone.
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Work-related trips primarily ended within Vancouver, while a large share of leisure drives extended outside the city, revealing a spatial divide in trip purposes.
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Although fewer in number, shared drives were more common for meetings and work, hinting at collaboration or carpooling that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Unfolding Data and an Ongoing Story
Reflecting on this phase of the project, I have come to appreciate how much I can learn by spending time with my own data. What began as a simple logging habit turned into a personal exploration. Mapping trips helped me see routines differently, uncover hidden patterns, and rediscover stories that I had forgotten, like shared work drives that only surfaced through the visuals.
Learning Tableau was a steep curve, but was key to shaping the narrative. Designing with color, interaction and intent has deepened my understanding of storytelling and the role it plays in it.​
Most of all, this project helped me pause and hold onto moments that might have faded. These trips carry memories of people, places and choices that have shaped the past few years. Working through this story has also helped me grow as an information designer, not just in skills, but in how I think about data, what it can hold, and how it can be shared effectively. I look forward to seeing what the next phase of this dataset reveals.