The impact of rainfall on the temporal and spatial distribution of taxi passengers

PLoS One. 2017 Sep 5;12(9):e0183574. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0183574. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the impact of rainfall on the temporal and spatial distribution of taxi passengers. The main objective is to provide guidance for taxi scheduling on rainy days. To this end, we take the occupied and empty states of taxis as units of analysis. By matching a taxi's GPS data to its taximeter data, we can obtain the taxi's operational time and the taxi driver's income from every unit of analysis. The ratio of taxi operation time to taxi drivers' income is used to measure the quality of taxi passengers. The research results show that the spatio-temporal evolution of urban taxi service demand differs based on rainfall conditions and hours of operation. During non-rush hours, taxi demand in peripheral areas is significantly reduced under increasing precipitation conditions, whereas during rush hours, the demand for highly profitable taxi services steadily increases. Thus, as an intelligent response for taxi operations and dispatching, taxi services should guide cruising taxis to high-demand regions to increase their service time and ride opportunities.

MeSH terms

  • Automobile Driving / statistics & numerical data*
  • China
  • Geographic Information Systems
  • Humans
  • Income
  • Rain*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Statistics as Topic
  • Time Factors

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71372198), the Jiangsu Science and Technology Department (BY2015070-25), and the Key Technology of Charging Station Network Construction and Operation in Nanjing (Ks1513) to YZ. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.