The analysis of urban taxi operation efficiency based on GPS trajectory big data

Abstract

With the development of social economy, a series of problems such as an imbalance of supply and demand, unreasonable resource allocation and low operation efficiency appear in the urban taxi market. Based on the GPS trajectory data of taxis, this paper calculates and analyzes the operation efficiency of taxis in terms of time and space dimensions in Chengdu, Sichuan Province by using the capacity utilization rate. The results show that, firstly, the weekly variation trend of taxi capacity utilization rate is obviously periodic and its daily variation trend is unbalanced, which is reflected in the morning peak, afternoon peak, evening peak and night peak. The daily variation trend of taxi capacity utilization rate is significantly different between workdays and weekends, and the capacity utilization rate on weekends is much lower. Secondly, there is a spatial imbalance in the distribution of taxi capacity utilization rate. The capacity utilization rate of the main urban district is relatively high, and that of the other urban districts negatively correlates with the economic level and population density. The supply and demand of taxis are balanced within the various functional zones but unbalanced between different functional zones. It is suggested that the relevant departments shall reasonably allocate taxi resources according to the imbalance of taxi capacity utilization rate in time and space to improve the overall operation efficiency, and integrate market mechanism with government regulations to promote the sustainable development of urban taxis.