A day of commuting
Sources & method ↓Commuting in
Journeys to work and back around Geneva.
Loading map…
Geneva population vs daily average · All transport
−5’313Commuter data · 2020–2024
About the data
The counts come from published commuting statistics. Routes and travel times are estimates for an illustrative working day. The map doesn’t show live traffic.
Where commuters live and work, and how they usually travel.
02 · Swiss communesOFS commune matrixCommuter counts between Swiss communes, from 2020.
03 · Current Swiss totalsOCSTAT 20242024 commuter totals for trips between Geneva and Vaud.
04 · Vaud commuting modesOCT / Relevé structurel 2020Train, car and other modes for commuters between Vaud and Geneva, published in 2022 (page 40). Other modes remain unclassified.
05 · Scheduled public-transport journeysSKI / Swiss timetable 2026Morning and return itineraries for 8 September 2026, including cross-border buses, trains and transfers. Journeys are calculated locally with MOTIS; they do not identify each worker’s actual service.
06 · BasemapStadia Alidade SmoothThe map behind the commuter dots.
07 · Swiss locationsswissBOUNDARIES3DCommune boundaries and centre points for the Swiss side of the map.
08 · RoutesValhalla / OpenStreetMapCar, cycling and walking routes, with journey times for car trips.
09 · Swiss towns and villagesswisstopo place namesTown and village centres used as endpoints for car journeys.
10 · Swiss rail networkARE · NPVM 2023Rail geometry from the federal transport model. Its passenger totals are not used here.
11 · Rail stationsDiDok · SBB / SKIOfficial station locations used to connect Swiss commuter communes to the rail network.
12 · Public transportTransitousA small set of additional public-transport routes based on operator timetables.
13 · French locationsAPI GéoOfficial commune names, town-hall locations and centre points in Ain and Haute-Savoie.
14 · InspirationHabibi Code / RedditThe Geneva commuter animation that started this project.
15 · City listFSO City Statistics 2026Population figures for the ten largest cities. Additional cities were chosen for their commuter flows.
The data covers all communes in the canton. French records from Ain and Haute-Savoie retain their reported workplace commune and transport mode; people reporting no journey are excluded. Swiss commune pairs cover Vaud in both directions, scaled to 2024 totals. Their train and car shares come from the 2020 survey of commuters between Vaud and Geneva, published by OCT in 2022. The survey’s other category stays unclassified and is excluded from the three mode filters. The survey year coincides with the pandemic. These historical aggregate shares do not establish each person’s mode. Other-canton and unknown locations remain outside the routes. Each moving dot represents a group of commuters. Larger circles mean more commuters.
The buttons filter the map, chart and city circle together. The chart counts arrivals at workplace endpoints and departures from home endpoints; it does not measure crossings of city boundaries. It includes routed journeys only. This is an illustrative working day without attendance, weekend or holiday adjustments.
Geneva uses sample morning and return journeys from the Swiss timetable for 8 September 2026, including cross-border buses, trains, walks to stops and transfer waiting. These provide possible routes and journey times. They do not tell us which service each commuter uses. The animation spreads departures across a typical working day; it does not show a live timetable.
Where no timetable journey is available, Swiss rail paths follow the federal transport model’s 2023 network between selected stations. These paths use estimated travel times and do not establish a valid service or passenger count. Bus connections, transfers and routes abroad may still be missing.
Where only resident shares are available, walk/bike is the residual after motorised and public transport and may include other modes. The six-city study explicitly identifies walking/cycling. Only local routes up to 25 km between endpoints are considered. Valhalla uses walking within 3 km and cycling beyond that. Routes over 35 km or three hours are excluded from both map and chart. French records explicitly distinguish walking and cycling; no-journey records are excluded.
Routes cover at least 95% of mapped car / motorcycle estimates in each direction, with separate journeys to work and home. Moving dots follow these routes over the basemap. Departure times are estimated; journey times come from Valhalla. The counts include people travelling by car or motorcycle, not vehicles, and don’t account for traffic jams.
Routes start and end near town and village centres or French town halls, with commune centres where needed. Geneva covers the canton. French workplace communes are retained. Swiss journeys cover Vaud in both directions; other cantons and unknown locations are outside this map.