Politics & Government
Creative Views of BART Dispute by Hackers
If you'd like a 9-course banquet of easy-to-digest data visualizations of the complex issues in the BART labor dispute, you can point your browser to a new website created by a local hackers group and UC Berkeley students.
Do BART workers already make too much? Not enough?
If you're confused about the conflicting claims over BART compensation and what factors need to considered, some UC Berkeley students and a Bay Area hackers group are offering quick ways to see and understand the data on a new website called "Visualizing the BART Labor Dispute."
The site allows viewers to see broad patterns at a glance – such as how BART compensation compares to that of other transportation agencies or highway traffic during the short BART strike in July. The interactive visualizations also allow users to click on the images for more details, such as how much compensation is paid for each BART job classification and how much each component of the compensation is worth.
The website, launched Oct. 11, was built largely in two "Hack the BART Strike" hackathons in Berkeley on Oct. 2 and Oct. 7.
It was created by the Bay Area d3 User Group and the student-run Visualizing Urban Data IdeaLab (VUD Lab) affiliated with the UC Berkeley Blum Center for Developing Economies.
Published Oct. 17, 2013, 2:21 p.m., updated 5:48 p.m.
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