2

I have this infographic: As you (hopefully) can see, this is about traffic increase versus shifting in different modes of transportation.

enter image description here

Now although the projection of car use in 2050 is decreased with 68% vs. 73%, the total traffic increases 111%. So in reallity there will be more cars on the road in 2050

Do you know any better visualizations to show that although car traffic decreases, the total volume is increasing.

This is doing already a better job than a standard pie chart, but maybe there is something even better?

Improve this question
6
  • 4
    No solution, just an observation: It hugely confuses me that the '68' bar in the lower part is longer than the '73' one above it. Maybe use absolute numbers rather than percentages?
    – Vincent
    Commented Dec 21, 2022 at 16:57
  • yes it confuses me as well it's super unintuitive. removing the numbers altogether eases it. But maybe there is another solution
    – KSPR
    Commented Dec 22, 2022 at 10:39
  • What if you add the percentage symbol on the areas where it fits, and normalise according to 2017? Meaning, the lower bar will add up to 111%. To clarify, you could add a callout 'total: 111% of 2017' to the right of the bar.
    – Vincent
    Commented Dec 22, 2022 at 10:52
  • hmm. that could be a solution. I usually work in climatology where everything is based on reference years. adding numbers not relative to the reference year is a huge no-go. But maybe I should try regardles lol
    – KSPR
    Commented Dec 22, 2022 at 11:24
  • The numbers don't make sense. I work with financial charts, and they would never show a 68 bigger than a 73 ... not sure what that is. If its bigger, it must look bigger. Climate sounds so relative :))
    – lmlmlm
    Commented Dec 22, 2022 at 12:51

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

Seems to me you actually have 2 charts here - total traffic, and vehicle usage.

I don't know how helpful this is, but given that there are actually two differentiators, I was playing with a method of showing that rather than trying to integrate them. After all, the "total vehicles" can never be greater than 100%. Keeping the vehicles bars at the same length goes a long way to instant visual recognition of the differences.

enter image description here

Or

enter image description here

Improve this answer
1
  • I agree, the point should be made about the 11% absolute traffic increase. And that's one part of the information. The other part is the percentage split in both cases, but these need to add up to 100%. I mean 68+24+4+4=100, so you can't distort math and say these add up to 111%.
    – lmlmlm
    Commented Dec 23, 2022 at 17:05

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.