Quantifying the Impact of Rainfall on Taxi Hailing and Operation

Adverse weathers are well-known to impact the operation of transportation systems, including taxis. This paper utilizes taxi GPS waypoint data to investigate the quantitative impact of rainfall on taxi hailing and taxi operations to help improve service quality on rainy days. Through statistical analysis, the study proves that it is more difficult to hail taxis on rainy days, especially during morning peak hours. By modelling the difference value of factors for rainfall and nonrainfall conditions in a multivariate regression model and attaining the significance and elasticity of each factor, passenger demand, taxi supply, search time and velocity are proved to be the significant factors that lower the taxis’ level of service on rainy days. Among them, the number of passengers and taxis are two factors that have the greatest impact. It is also shown that there is no significant difference in the total taxi supply and passenger demand between rainfall and nonrainfall conditions, but a dramatic change in the spatial distribution is discovered. The results suggest that instead of simply providing more taxis on rainy days, optimally dispatching taxicabs to high demand regions can be a more effective solution.