City taxi service systems have been empirically studied by a number of data-driven methods. However, their underlying mechanisms are hard to understand because the present mathematical models neglect to explain a (whole) taxi service process that includes a pair of on-load phase and off-load phase. In this paper, by analyzing a large amount of taxi servicing data from a large city in China, we observe that the taxi service process shows different temporal and spatial features according to the on-load phase and off-load phase. Moreover, our correlation analysis results demonstrate the lack of dependence between the on-load phase and the off-load phase. Hence, we introduce two independent random walk models based on the Langevin equation to describe the underlying mechanism and to understand the temporal and spatial features of the taxi service process. Our study attempts to formulate the mathematical framework for simulating the taxi service process and better understanding of its underlying mechanism.
Describing travel patterns and identifying significant locations is a crucial area of research in transportation geography and social dynamics. Our study aims to contribute to this field by analyzing taxi trip data from Chengdu and New York City. Specifically, we investigate the probability density distribution of trip distance in each city, which enables us to construct long- and short-distance trip networks. To identify critical nodes within these networks, we employ the PageRank algorithm and categorize them using centrality and participation indices. Furthermore, we explore the factors that contribute to their influence and observe a clear hierarchical multi-centre structure in Chengdu’s trip networks, while no such phenomenon is evident in New York City’s. Our study provides insight into the impact of trip distance on important nodes within trip networks in both cities and serves as a reference for distinguishing between long and short taxi trips. Our findings also reveal substantial differences in network structures between the two cities, highlighting the nuanced relationship between network structure and socio-economic factors. Ultimately, our research sheds light on the underlying mechanisms shaping transportation networks in urban areas and offers valuable insights into urban planning and policy making.
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