Taxi Travel Research Articles

UberX drivers supply taxi travel and so must be registered for GST

KEYWORDS: VATGSTrequirement to registerregistration thresholdride-sourcingride-sharingtaxi travelUber

Urban Taxi Ridership Analysis in the Emerging Metropolis: Case Study in Shanghai

Abstract Taxicab is one of the critical components of the urban mobility in most metropolitan areas on the world, especially in the emerging countries. Last year in Shanghai, the total 50,000 taxicabs carry 2.8 million passengers and travel 17.1 million kilometers every day. The tremendous amount of the stochastic and independent trips across the city makes the taxi problem more complex than transit such as bus and metro. Multi-source data over space and time provide an efficient way to explore the taxi ridership and travel pattern. In this study, we first summarize the historical operation records of Shanghai taxicabs, and then compare the temporal and spatial variation patterns of the taxi trips in Shanghai and New York City using GPS data. A regression model is developed to investigate the relationship between ridership and variables including urban land use, resident population, employment and car ownership. The results of this study may first improve the transportation model, and also benefit the efficiency of taxi operation and policy making.

A Social-Network-Optimized Taxi-Sharing Service

Social-network-based taxi sharing is a potential smart city service with social and economic benefits. The authors designed a framework for planning social-network-based taxi travel and successfully applied it in a practical scenario.

Understanding taxi travel patterns

Taxis play important roles in modern urban transportation systems, especially in mega cities. While providing necessary amenities, taxis also significantly contribute to traffic congestion, urban energy consumption, and air pollution. Understanding the travel patterns of taxis is thus important for addressing many urban sustainability challenges. Previous research has primarily focused on examining the statistical properties of passenger trips, which include only taxi trips occupied with passengers. However, unoccupied trips are also important for urban sustainability issues because they represent potential opportunities to improve the efficiency of the transportation system. Therefore, we need to understand the travel patterns of taxis as an integrated system, instead of focusing only on the occupied trips. In this study we examine GPS trajectory data of 11,880 taxis in Beijing, China for a period of three weeks. Our results show that taxi travel patterns share similar traits with travel patterns of individuals but also exhibit differences. Trip displacement distribution of taxi travels is statistically greater than the exponential distribution and smaller than the truncated power-law distribution. The distribution of short trips (less than 30 miles) can be best fitted with power-law while long trips follow exponential decay. We use radius of gyration to characterize individual taxi’s travel distance and find that it does not follow a truncated power-law as observed in previous studies. Spatial and temporal regularities exist in taxi travels. However, with increasing spatial coverage, taxi trips can exhibit dual high probability density centers.

A GPS Data Based Monitor Model of Unoccupied Taxis at Transportation Hubs

Taxis account for a large percent of urban public passenger transport. This research proposes a monitor model of analyzing unoccupied taxis at a defined area. By scientific analysis of taxi GPS data precision and quality, 16,255 valid taxis in register list were filtered, and two coefficients were introduced to correct the taxi monitoring model. Based on the location reports of valid taxis, the number of unoccupied taxi which was able to dispatch to meet passengers’ demands can be predicted. Take the terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport as a case study, the field investigation results show that the precision of model reached 87.25%. It provides reliable systematic support and alert for a low taxi number when there comes up large taxi travel demand during the peak period or under severe weathers.

Taxi Travel Should Be Subsidized

In a first-best environment, taxi travel should be subsidized. The result derives from economies of density—doubling trips and taxis reduces waiting time. The subsidy should cover the shadow cost of taxis' idle time, evaluated at the optimum. The paper provides a proof of the result for dispatch taxis and then discusses the practicality of its implementation.