How are the downloaded Place + Pattern joined datasets seperated into multiple files?

Hi, I have two questions.

  1. I downloaded the Place and Pattern joined data which lasts several months and I am trying to understand the data in each file. It seems each file covers the whole period (i.e., the file is not separated by month) and all my intended areas. Can you please tell me how those datasets are separated?

  2. This question is mentioned by others but I cannot find the answer under the question thread. For the medium_dwelling_time in the patterns dataset, some of the dwell times are extremely long. Can you tell me why there might be such large variation in dwell time?

Hello Connie!

Along with the Patterns file, we also deliver Panel Overview Data to help you better understand the context of the data appearing in Patterns. You can learn more about the data you’ve downloaded here.

As for medium_dwelling_time, what kind of places have these long dwell times?

There are places that will naturally have longer dwelling times than others.

On that same note, you can click here for more detailed information.

Hi jzavala, thank you for your reply. Sorry I did not make my questions clear. Please let me frame them again.

  1. My first question comes from my recent downloaded data. I downloaded places and pattern joined monthly data from 03/2021 to 03/2022. There are 61 datasets and each covers the whole year and all US states. I wonder how a big file is divided into smaller files when downloading from SafeGraph since they are not divided by time or states based on my observation.
  2. When I checked the patterns data, there are some medium-dwell data nearly 24 hours (as in the below picture). I wonder how the medium dwelling time is collected and the possible reasons for such long dwelling time data. I saw Jeff@SafeGraph once answered others about this but I cannot find the answer there anymore.