Create free infographics with Venngage
First thing I did was find the data. I started with the NoiseComplaintsInWardsForFT.csv file we were provided with to see which ward had the most noise complaints, as I wanted to focus on that and find any trends associated with the particular ward. Based on the first step of analysis, done by making the above cloud bubble graph venngage.com, I was able to discover that Ward 12, Rideau-Vanier, has the most complaints, overall, from January 2013 – September 2015.
From there I focused on Ward 12. I found a map of all the wards in the city and one of ward 12 on it’s own, so I could see the location and what sort of businesses and In order to provide myself with some focus for my story, I contacted the Rideau-Vanier’s Ward Councillor and his assistant, Stephane Galipeau, was very helpful. He told me that the complaints usually go down during the winter but when they start to pick up varies on the weather changing from winter to spring. I decided to take the data from January, March and July 2013-2015 to see if there is a trend in noise complaints, with them being lower during the winter months, increasing in the spring and peaking in the summer.
Finding the data proved quite easy through http://data.ottawa.ca/, since all noise complaints go though the 3-1-1 bylaw hotline. By searching the 3-1-1 service data, I was able to find .xslx files segregated by year and then by month, each with their own file. I then downloaded the files from January, March and July 2013-2014 and put them into excel. For each file, I started with the original file and deleted the unnecessary columns to make it easier to filter and find the information I required. Then I created a pivot table for each file, filtering to see how many noise complaints were made in ward 12 in that month/year.
Next, I went back to venngage to complete my infographic and made the above bar graph depicting the noise complaints in January, March and April, grouped by year. I noticed that the number of complaints peak in July, as predicted, but was surprised by the amount of noise complaints made in January. Galipeau was very insistent that there are always more complaints in the warmer months, so I went about finding someone who could give me some insight as to why January has more complaints than a warmer month like March.
I found my answer with City of Ottawa employee, Shannon White. I gave her the data I found and questioned her about the large number of complaints made in January and she told me that number didn’t surprise her at all. She said that since they have to remove the snow as it falls, they can’t wait until business hours. This is especially the case in a ward like Rideau-Vanier, because it has major downtown businesses, the University of Ottawa and some of the most narrow streets in the city (complete with the need for street parking).
As much as the data shows that the number of noise complaints in ward 12 are decreasing, I think we will continue to see numbers in the same range due to unavoidable noisy actions, such as snow removal and construction.
Sources:
http://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/your-city-government/city-wards
http://data.ottawa.ca/en/dataset/311-monthly-service-request-submissions
http://data.ottawa.ca/en/dataset/2014-311-monthly-service-request-submissions
http://data.ottawa.ca/en/dataset/2015-311-monthly-service-request-submissions
https://infograph.venngage.com/infographics