This Heat Map Will Help You Navigate the Madness of Boston Move-In Day

We’re quickly approaching one of the busiest times of the year for Boston.

Every year, between late August and early September, new and returning students move into dorms or apartments near the city’s universities. Known as ‘Move-In’ week, it’s a period that seasoned residents learn to dread, as it corresponds to increased traffic, blocked street and general chaos.

Luckily for everyone who’ll be around, apartment hunting site RentHop has (once again) collected a series of data—visualized in an interactive map—that can help people plan their transportation and commuting effectively.

Specifically, the site selected the number of moving truck permits to identify the busiest areas, focusing exclusively on the expiration dates of the moving truck permits (which RentHop said it generally coincides with the actual moving dates).

The following map takes a closer look at the daily number of issued moving truck permits for 2018.

Daily Heat Map of Boston ‘Move-In’ Period 2018

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By looking more specifically at the individual dates, it emerges that Sept. 1 and Aug. 31 have higher spikes than others. This is due to permits ending on those dates; 747 permits are due to expire on Sept. 1 and 416 on Aug. 31.

While these dates are definitely the moments to avoid, the data shows a decrease in total issued permits when comparing August 2017 to August 2018. Last year there was a total of 3,257 issued permits. In August 2018 there were a total of 2,839 issued permits, a decrease of 12.83% from the previous year.

So, we know ‘when’ to steer clear of the city. What about ‘where’? To identify the areas to avoid, RentHop ranked the top ten busiest zip codes based on the number of issued permits, which you can check out below: