If you don\u2019t live in Boston, then you probably don\u2019t know about the struggles faced by students during the dreaded move-in period. Every year, between late August and early September, new and returning students move into dorms or new apartments near the city\u2019s universities. While moving week is a common occurrence every year, that doesn\u2019t dampen the annoyance of dealing with streets flooded with furniture, traffic delays, and finding alternative routes to work, etc. Like the heat map in 2016 used by Kyle Scott Clauss, we decided to take a deeper look into the madness that is Boston move-in day. This year we also did a comparison of 2018 and 2019 to see if Boston move-in day has gotten worse or better.<\/p>\n
We looked at the data provided by the City of Boston for street occupancy permits. For this study, we used publicly available data on Boston’s moving truck permits, made available on Boston’s open data hub<\/a>. The data provides us with the issued moving truck permits for dates up to September 12, 2019. We focused exclusively on the expiration dates of the moving truck permits (which generally coincide with the actual moving dates) instead of the permit issuance dates. You can only apply online for a permit if your moving date is at least two weeks away, and no more than a month away. That said, because we are looking at when these moving permits expire, there may be additional permits registered between now and your move-in day, so long as potential movers fit the above criteria.<\/p>\n We created two maps:<\/span><\/p>\n Like the previously published maps, both of the embedded maps below show the addresses of the moving truck permits that were issued.\u00a0<\/span>Looking at the maps, it is easy to spot which neighborhoods are busier than others, and under which time frame and dates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
Daily Heat Map of Boston 2018 (for comparison)<\/span><\/h2>\n