A two-stage approach to modeling vacant taxi movements

•We propose a two-stage approach to modeling vacant taxi movements.•We develop an iterative solution procedure to solve the two-stage model.•The model allows extensions for depicting and managing taxi flow on local streets.•It explains the effects of fleet size and fare on taxi customer-search decisions.

In this paper, a two-stage modeling approach is proposed to predict vacant taxi movements in searching for customers. The taxi movement problem is formulated into a two-stage model that consists of two sub-models, namely the first and second stage sub-models. The first stage sub-model estimates the zone choice of vacant taxi drivers for customer-search and the second stage sub-model determines the circulation time and distance of vacant taxi drivers in each zone by capturing their local customer-search decisions in a cell-based network within the zone chosen in the first stage sub-model. These two sub-models are designed to influence each other, and hence an iterative solution procedure is introduced to solve for a convergent solution. The modeling concept, advantages, and applications are illustrated by the global positioning system data of 460 Hong Kong urban taxis. The results demonstrate that the proposed model formulation offers a great improvement in terms of root mean square error as compared with the existing taxi customer-search models, and show the model capabilities of predicting the changes in vacant taxi trip distributions with respect to the variations in the fleet size and fare. Potential taxi policies are investigated and discussed according to the findings to provide insights in managing the Hong Kong taxi market.