Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

New potential for multimodal connection: exploring the relationship between taxi and transit in New York City (NYC)

  • Published:
Transportation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Taxi trips have been somewhat neglected in transportation mobility and multimodal connection studies. The socio-demographic characteristics of taxi riders are often not fully revealed and the relationship between the taxi and fixed-route public transportation has not been sufficiently quantified. This research operationalizes the multifaceted relationship between the taxi and transit in an innovative way. We categorize taxi trips into three types: transit-competing, transit-complementing, and transit-extending trips, by examining the spatial relationship of taxi trips’ origins/destinations and the locations of transit stations using a New York global positioning system taxi trip dataset. The distinct characteristics of the three types of taxi trips reflect the different market segmentations that taxis serve and the competing, complementary, and supportive nature of the relationship between the taxi and transit. We also explore the demographic characteristics of taxi riders and the result reveals the important role of taxis in providing mobility options to the economically or physically challenged population. Among our many findings are that transit-extending taxi trips have significantly shorter average trip lengths and larger proportions of people paying with cash than other trip types. These and other results point to important policy implications for improving the multimodal connection between the taxi and transit.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price includes VAT (Finland)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Source: Shapefiles were downloaded from the official website of ArcGIS/ESRI

Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Austin, D., Zegras, P.C.: The Taxicab as Public Transportation in Boston. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  • Best, H., Lanzendorf, M.: Division of labour and gender differences in metropolitan car use: an empirical study in Cologne, Germany. J. Transp. Geogr. 13(2), 109–121 (2005). doi:10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2004.04.007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cervero, R.: Transit-based housing in california: evidence on ridership impacts. Transp. Policy 1(3), 174–183 (1994). doi:10.1016/0967-070X(94)90013-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cervero, R.: Paratransit in America: Redefining Mass Transportation. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  • Cervero, R., Kockelman, K.: Travel demand and the 3Ds: density, diversity, and design. Transp. Res. D Transp. Environ. 2(3), 199–219 (1997). doi:10.1016/S1361-9209(97)00009-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chang, H.-w., Tai, Y.-c., Hsu, JY.-j.: Context-aware taxi demand hotspots prediction. Int. J. Bus. Intell. Data Min. 5(1), 3–18 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christoforou, Z., Milioti C., Perperidou, D., Karlaftis, M.G.: Investigation of taxi travel time characteristics. Adv. Transp. Stud. (2012). doi:10.4399/97888548486722

  • Clifton, K., Muhs, C.: Capturing and representing multimodal trips in travel surveys. Transp. Res. Rec. J. Transp. Res. Board 2285, 74–83 (2012). doi:10.3141/2285-09

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Donohue, P.: 50% of cabs wheelchair accessible by 2020. NY Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/50-cabs-wheelchair-accessible-2020-article-1.1539688 (2013)

  • Espín Noboa, L., Lemmerich, F., Singer, P., Strohmaier, M.: Discovering and characterizing mobility patterns in urban spaces: a study of manhattan taxi data. In: Proceedings of the 25th International Conference Companion on World Wide Web, pp. 537–542. International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee (2016)

  • Ewing, R., Cervero, R.: Travel and the built environment: a synthesis. Transp. Res. Rec. J. Transp. Res. Board 1780(1), 87–114 (2001). doi:10.3141/1780-10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fagnant, D.J., Kockelman, K.M.: The travel and environmental implications of shared autonomous vehicles, using agent-based model scenarios. Transp. Res. C Emerg. Technol. 40, 1–13 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fitzsimmons, E.G.: Tomorrow arrives for New York City’s yellow cab standard. The New York Times, August 31. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/nyregion/taxi-of-tomorrow-becomes-citys-yellow-cab-standard.html (2015)

  • Gilbert, G., Samuels, R.E.: The Taxicab: an Urban Transportation Survivor. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill. https://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=177870 (1982)

  • Giuliano, G.: Low income, public transit, and mobility. Transp. Res. Rec. J. Transp. Res. Board 1927, 63–70 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, S., Vovsha, P., Donnelly, R.: Air passenger preferences for choice of airport and ground access mode in the New York City metropolitan region. Transp. Res. Rec. J. Transp. Res. Board 2042, 3–11 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hochmair, H.H.: Spatiotemporal pattern analysis of taxi trips in New York City. Transp. Res. Rec. J. Transp. Res. Board 2542, 45–56 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ipingbemi, O.: Travel Characteristics and mobility constraints of the elderly in Ibadan, Nigeria. J. Transp. Geogr. 18(2), 285–291 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacques, C., Manaugh, K., El-Geneidy, A.M.: Rescuing the captive [mode] user: an alternative approach to transport market segmentation. Transportation 40(3), 625–645 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kamga, C., Yazici, M.A., Singhal, A.: Hailing in the rain: temporal and weather-related variations in taxi ridership and taxi demand-supply equilibrium. In: Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting. (2013)

  • Kattan, L., de Barros, A., Wirasinghe, S.C.: Analysis of work trips made by taxi in Canadian cities. J. Adv. Transp. 44(1), 11–18 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keijer, M.J.N., Rietveld, P.: How do people get to the railway station? The Dutch experience. Transp. Plan. Technol. 23(3), 215–235 (2000). doi:10.1080/03081060008717650

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, D.A., Peters, J.R, Daus, M.W.: Taxicabs for improved urban mobility: are we missing an opportunity? In: Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting. (2012)

  • King, D.A., Saldarriaga, J.F.: Access to taxicabs for unbanked households: an exploratory analysis in New York City. In: Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting. (2016)

  • Lacombe, A., Morency, C.: Modeling Taxi trip generation using GPS data: the montreal case. In: Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting. (2016)

  • Phithakkitnukoon, S., Veloso, M., Bento, C., Biderman, A., Ratti, C.: Taxi-aware map: identifying and predicting vacant taxis in the city. In: Ambient Intelligence, pp. 86–95. Springer, (2010)

  • Polzin, S., Chu, X., Rey, J.: Density and captivity in public transit success: observations from the 1995 nationwide personal transportation study. Transp. Res. Rec. J. Transp. Res. Board 1735, 10–18 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pucher, J., Renne, J.L.: Socioeconomics of urban travel: evidence from the 2001 NHTS. Transp. Q. 57(3), 49–77 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  • Qian, X., Ukkusuri, S.V.: Spatial variation of the urban taxi ridership using GPS data. Appl. Geogr. 59, 31–42 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qian, X., Zhan, X., Ukkusuri, S.V.: Characterizing urban dynamics using large scale taxicab data. In: Engineering and Applied Sciences Optimization, vol. 38, pp. 17–32. Springer (2015)

  • Rayle, L., Dai, D., Chan, N., Cervero, R., Shaheen, S.: Just a better taxi? A survey-based comparison of taxis, transit, and ridesourcing services in San Francisco. Transp. Policy 45(January), 168–178 (2016). doi:10.1016/j.tranpol.2015.10.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenbloom, S.: Increasing accessible taxi options for people with disabilities. In: 82 Nd TRB Annual Meeting, Washington, DC. (2003)

  • Schaller, B.: A regression model of the number of taxicabs in US cities. J. Public Transp. 8(5), 4 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmöcker, J.D., Quddus, M., Noland, R., Bell, M.: Estimating trip generation of elderly and disabled people: analysis of London data. Transp. Res. Rec. J. Transp. Res. Board 1924, 9–18 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmöcker, J.D., Quddus, M.A., Noland, R.B., Bell, M.G.: Mode choice of older and disabled people: a case study of shopping trips in London. J. Transp. Geogr. 16(4), 257–267 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaheen, S.A., Chan, N.D., Micheaux, H.: One-way carsharing’s evolution and operator perspectives from the Americas. Transportation 42(3), 519–536 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smart, R., Rowe, B., Hawken, A., Kleiman, M., Mladenovic, N., Gehred, P., Manning, C.: Faster and cheaper: how ride-sourcing fills a gap in low-income Los Angeles neighborhoods. BOTEC Analysis Corporation. Retrieved 17 September 2015

  • Webster, A.L., Wiener, E., Wells, J.D.: Role of taxicabs in urban transportation. U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Assistant Secretary for Policy, Plans, and International Affairs, Office of Transportation Planning Analysis (1974)

  • Yang, C., Gonzales, E.: Modeling taxi trip demand by time of day in New York City. Transp. Res. Rec. J. Transp. Res. Board 2429, 110–120 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, W., Guhathakurta, S., Fang, J., Zhang, G.: Exploring the impact of shared autonomous vehicles on urban parking demand: an agent-based simulation approach. Sustain. Cities Soc. 19(December), 34–45 (2015). doi:10.1016/j.scs.2015.07.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Tim F. Welch and Peter Hylton in the School of City and Regional Planning at Georgia Tech who have provided valuable support and advice during the study. The authors also want to thank the three anonymous reviewers who have helped improve the quality of this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of City and Regional Planning, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30308, USA

    Fangru Wang

  2. School of City and Regional Planning/Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30308, USA

    Catherine L. Ross

Authors
  1. Fangru Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Catherine L. Ross
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fangru Wang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wang, F., Ross, C.L. New potential for multimodal connection: exploring the relationship between taxi and transit in New York City (NYC). Transportation 46, 1051–1072 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-017-9787-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-017-9787-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation