Taxicabs

Taxi Services

Planning and policies for taxicabs are wide ranging. Though taxicabs are a minor mode by usage, taxi services play an important complementary role to transit and other alternatives to auto ownership. The passenger simply wants to get between two known points, for instance, work and home after a late night in the office.

But the taxi drivers have different incentives and travel patterns as they spend many trips—but not necessarily miles—waiting or driving to pick up another passenger. Understanding these two travel markets for each taxi vehicle is challenging. A few studies modeled after demand for taxi service from passengers and others are more conceptual about the potential benefits of taxi services. Recently, many scholars have started to use Global Positioning System (GPS) data from taxis to model traffic flows and other aspects of the transport systems. Overall, however, taxicabs are a relatively unexplored aspect of urban transit, especially with regard to the accessibility benefits and the relationship to public transit.

With the advent of GPS in taxicabs around the world, there has been substantial new interest in taxis and traffic. Many GPS studies explicitly examine taxi driver behavior using the spatial data. This type of study is representative of current work, but by focusing on taxi driver behavior rather than rider characteristics and benefits, these studies leave a gap in the literature.

Even with the new interest in taxicabs resulting from GPS data, the role of taxis for personal travel is rarely explicitly studied. The travel behavior of taxi drivers tells only part of the travel story. Many open questions about driver behaviors are important for environmental and congestion mitigation.

Unlike conventional transit, taxicabs are not directly subsidized. Because there are no large public outlays to create and support taxi service, there is less reason for publicly funded research to model the cost-effectiveness of any investment. This reasoning helps explain why taxi regulations are studied, as regulations have an impact on public budgets and governance. Second, taxi service is viewed too often as a luxury good for the wealthy. However, data from the U.S. National Household Transportation Survey (NHTS) and the National Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS) show that the lowest-income households—the ones who are most dependent on transit—also take far more taxi trips than other income groups. Low-income travelers actually rely on taxis a much larger share of [Page 1319]their trips than the general population. One study from 1970 reported that households with incomes below $5,000 (about $30,000 in 2013) took about 30 percent of all taxi trips. These mode shares are consistent over time and are confirmed through recent NHTS data. The percentage of total trips made by taxi was between five and 10 times higher for households with zero or one car than for those with two or more.

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