A Spatial Analysis of Urban Taxi Drivers’ Working Pattern

Taxis equipped with GPS can record their trajectory and generate huge amounts of data. We can analyzethe behavior of taxi drivers and search for similarities and common characteristics in their working patterns. In this paper, we utilize taxi GPS data collected form Tianjin city to analyze taxi drivers’ working pattern. Firstly, we determined taxis’ parking place by detecting stopping points and measured the operating range. Secondly, we studied the taxis’ working pattern by comparing the relationship between three representative locations in taxis’ behavior: parking place, working center and city center. Thirdly, we analyzed the spatial pattern from two perspectives of direction and distance. Lastly, we studied the income efficiency of different taxis from different parking places and working centers. The research results demonstrated that the taxis’ individual mobility behavior has clear similarities: The taxi drivers’ operating pattern has a characteristic of moving toward the city center andmost of the working centers distribute in positions between parking places and the city center. The discoveries are significant for urban public infrastructure construction, government’s management of the taxis and taxi drivers’ strategy selections.