Using NYC Taxi Data to Identify Muslim Taxi Drivers | Hacker News Reader

Using NYC Taxi Data to Identify Muslim Taxi Drivers

theiii.org

104 pointstshtf21 comments

If you dig through to the source reddit posting [1], you can see that the post only really puts 6 different individual taxi IDs out there for visualization. To me, only the first 4 seem like a good visual fit for the prayer times, and the overall trip heatmap [2] suggests that they may just be part of a larger pattern of eating/taking a break at sunrise, noon, and sunset for all cab drivers. While the blog posting is begging the question of whether or not the data release contains personal data as a result of these findings, much more invasive findings have already been published (and posted to HN) with this NYC Taxi data, like corroborating individual trips by high profile people. [3] Notwithstanding the privacy issues and questionable methods used to obfuscate the data, I personally think that the release is a great step in the right direction for open data.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/2t201h/ide... [2] https://i.imgur.com/lyK0qTI.png [3] http://research.neustar.biz/2014/09/15/riding-with-the-stars...

EDIT: For better or worse, deducing ethnicity, country of origin, and/or religion is probably much easier based on this data set [4]. People have come up with analyses like this [5]. The data analysis is great, but my fingers are crossed that tabloid newspapers and their ilk don't pick this up and run off xenophobic, fear-mongering articles.

[4] https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Transportation/Medallion-Drive... [5] http://vizual-statistix.tumblr.com/image/107987401281

In Copenhagen, it was revealed a few years ago that racist customers who didn't want a muslim taxi driver told the central when ordering a cab that they were 'bringing a large dog', and the operators at the centrals knew and respected this as the secret code that the customer wanted an ethnic Danish driver. This is obviously illegal but I dont know whether they stopped the practise.

OT: Sorry, that made me laugh...I can't even imagine how that would even work in New York...you'd be waiting forever to get a ride; the Redditor mentions a previous name analysis of drivers (TLC releases names/licenses of taxi drivers as another dataset) indicating that maybe half of all NYC taxi drivers are Muslim.

After living in New York, I have a Pollyannish belief that if you were inclined to be unconsciously racist...you'd give up that inclination in day-to-day life...or else, how could you cope with the sensory/panic overload? Everyday you're exposed to hundreds, sometimes thousands of people of every ethnicity and religion, just being normal.

Despite the diversity of NYC as a whole, my anecdotal experiences suggest that people can still harbor those sorts of unconscious thoughts while living their entire lives in a "diverse" city. I say "diverse" because there are lots of enclaves in NYC, sometimes with stark divides across streets. (See the Dot Map [1]). Outside of gentrifying/gentrified areas like Long Island City or Prospect Heights, or white flight areas like Morris Park, neighborhoods look rather homogeneous. (Exercise for the reader: see if you can find out where the Landmark/Historic Districts are in Brooklyn.)

[1] http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/

Unfortunately, last time it was posted, it was noted that that map has drawing bias. The dots are drawn in order of race, not randomly, and so the earliest color dots are underrepresented and the later dots overrepresented. I'm afraid I can't remember the which order they are drawn in. Just something to keep in mind.

Interesting, I wasn't aware of that, thanks for bringing it up. From the code[0], it looks like it's drawn in the order [White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Other]. You're definitely right, that would skew things.

[0] https://github.com/unorthodox123/RacialDotMap/blob/master/do...

A lot of European countries or cities aren't as ethnically diverse as the USA.

> After living in New York, I have a Pollyannish belief that if you were inclined to be unconsciously racist...you'd give up that inclination in day-to-day life...or else, how could you cope with the sensory/panic overload?

I don't think that subconscious racism really works like that. I doubt that those types of racists are afraid of other races in that sense; they don't think that their cab driver is carrying a briefcase full of C4 in the trunk. They probably just have negative prejudices against 'em ("they're dumb", "their food smells", "they're just here to steal jobs").

And for every positive and neutral experience, they'd be likely to have a negative one as well - and they'd filter out and ignore the positives, while giving more credence to the negatives.

"or else, how could you cope with the sensory/panic overload?"

Leave your apartment, walk past some people that you just know are stupider than you, get a coffee served to you by some guy you just know is less hygienic than you are, when you park your bike make sure you lock it because some of the people nearby have criminal tendencies.

What overload? What panic? Some people carry these attitudes around with them all day, every day, and they don't panic about it.

It probably comforts and reassures them, knowing that they are intrinsically smarter/more hygienic/law-abiding than other people. And they don't even have to prove it!

Is there any research as to whether racist attitudes correlate more with perceived superiority or with fear? I wonder if this varies, e.g., by country.

Or the unconscious becomes conscious. I've known lots of people who are (a) around plenty of people outside their race and creed every day and (b) racist as fuck.

Also: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2298398/FDNY-lieuten...

If it's impossible to live in New York and retain racist beliefs, why are so many cops and taxi drivers in New York biased against black people?

I think you mean bigots or religious intolerant people.

Keeping a dog or coming in contact of a Dog is a taboo in Islam. So, the passengers were possibly using that as a trick to keep Muslim cab drivers disinterested in selling them a ride. It may not be illegal if the cab drivers had stated beforehand about their preference of not serving customers with dogs.

Many Muslim jurists consider dogs to be ritually unclean. (najis)[29] However, "jurists from the Sunni Maliki School disagree with the idea that dogs are unclean."[30] Individual fatāwā ("rulings") have indicated that dogs be treated kindly or otherwise released[31] and earlier Islamic literature often portrayed dogs as symbols of highly esteemed virtues such as self-sacrifice and loyalty, which, in the hands of despotic and unjust rulers, become oppressive instruments.[29]

Abou El Fadl "found it hard to believe that the same God who created such companionable creatures would have his prophet declare them 'unclean', stating that animosity towards dogs "reflected views far more consistent with pre-Islamic Arab customs and attitudes".[32] Furthermore, "he found that a hadith from one of the most trustworthy sources tells how the Prophet himself had prayed in the presence of his playfully cavorting dogs.

(from wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_in_Islam_

It's not that it's a taboo, it's the fact they break the persons Wudo (abulution to gain ritual purity). What this means practically is you would need to change your clothes and perform abulution if you wanted to pray; which you do, five times a day. Now day to day working life, this can be difficult, finding a toilet/mosque etc. So it's easier to stay clear of dogs. Muslims don't hate dogs per se (obviously there will be culture bias), or any other animal. We are told to respect all living beings including trees. -- Source - I'm a muslim, though there's probably a lot i've missed, and not an expert.

I don't really care what nationality my driver is, but I do not want someone who is on the phone all the time.

Yeah, the OP has serious blinders here. Like the student who threw alarmist BS about how the data could be used to track visits to stripper clubs...this seems to be an example of cherry-picking the data. So, I'm not good at discerning deviation from thousands of small dots...what's the numerical measure of the correlation here? What are the significance of those blue lines when they show a trend over empty black space?

And what does the analysis/trendlines look like on drivers who can be discerned as not being Muslim?

I'm all for personal data protection, and the TLC erred in not anonymizing the data. But this weak analysis and alarmist bullshit by a PhD serves little but to give governments more excuse to hide public data.

edit: Linking to someone more well versed than me, regarding the cherry-picking of data in the "Riding with the Stars" article http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2014/11/21/the-antidote...

> What are the significance of those blue lines when they show a trend over empty black space?

The blue lines are not trends, but prayer times plotted on top of the graph.

Observant Muslims

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