When, Where and How Taxis Are Used in Montreal

Taxi is a collective transportation mode that is suffering from under examination. Still, it can certainly contribute to the adoption of more sustainable travel behaviours as part of co-mobility strategies to reduce dependency towards the private car and all the negative impacts it has. This paper focuses on the role of taxis in the daily travel behaviours of Montrealers. Using a global positioning system (GPS) dataset over one month of operation (October 2011) of a fleet of 968 taxis (app. 22% of the entire fleet of the region), various descriptive analysis are conducted to understand how, when and where the taxis are used. Analysis is conducted at various levels: first, a single taxi is examined and then indicators are generalised to the entire set of data namely trip distance, mean duration, runs per day. The study also reveals important spatial and temporal trends: 95% of the runs are conducted during weekdays, between 6 am and 9 am and 32% of the origins of the runs are concentrated within an are a of 12.3 km² (2.5% of the Montréal Island). Hence, incidence of various factors such as weather or public holiday on usage is examined. For instance, the authors observe that during rainy days, the number of runs increases significantly and that their average length decreases. Specific studies of a main trip generator, the international airport, and of the central business district (CBD), are also conducted confirming the as symmetry of trip ends namely generated by the way the industry is managed i.e. with permits linked to specific zones. Based on spatial - temporal structure of taxi travel demand, we conclude that this transportation mode is often used for constraint trips (work) or to travel when other services are not in operation (at night for instance).

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP060 Paratransit. Alternate title: When, Where, and How Taxis Are Used in Montreal, Canada.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Pele, Nicolas
  • Morency, Catherine
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 15p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Central business districts; Global Positioning System; Mobility; Peak hour traffic; Sustainable transportation; Taxicabs; Travel behavior; Travel demand; Weather conditions
• Geographic Terms: Montreal (Canada)
• Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01519285
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-3943
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 24 2014 12:02PM