fivelinks
• When is your local tube station busiest? Where are the busiest stations on each tube line and how does that change during the day? The answers appear on the Tube Traffic Totaliser, an interactive graphic based on typical weekday figures. Maida Vale peaks at 8:30am, for example, whereas Covent Garden tops out at 10:30pm. Fun to fiddle with, and maybe even useful for avoiding the crowds. [all data from November 2010]
• The BBC is moving headlong into New Broadcasting House and is now offering public tours, starting in April, for £13.50. Spend an hour and a half looking round the newsroom, maybe the Radio Theatre, and several other parts of the extended building. [a very few tickets for the last tours of Television Centre are still available][tours also available in Salford, Birmingham, Norwich, Bristol, Newcastle and Cardiff]
• Jim blogs at (Drawing) Rings Around The World where he churns out all sorts of geographical and transport visualisations. Lately he's been bashing census data, to produce thismap of London's population density and this map of how we travel to work. [follow Jim here]
• For those still keeping fit post-January, a pedometer is a useful way of tracking the simplest forms of exercise. I've tried the plastic version, but they're a bit awkward and I invariably end up forgetting to take one with me. Now there's a new smartphone version called Moves, which automatically counts your steps as you wander round all day. It automatically deduces whether you're walking, cycling or running, adjusts to remove superfluous nudges, ignores train travel and serves up daily results in a simple linear manner. I've walked 4933 steps today, apparently, including 1127 at work, in 44 minutes. The app does appear to be sapping my battery life, so maybe it's not for every day, but I might add "Steps walked" to my February count and see how I get on. [iPhone only, free]
• Londoners who enjoy walking might consider joining the Inner London Ramblers. Their 5000 members form six geographical and three age-related groups, each of whom organise a series of local and out-of-town hikes. You don't have to join up on your first walk, and it might encourage you to enjoy South-East England more. [even solo walkers might be inspired by Mike's list of Ideas for walks]
