Investigating Travel Needs and Traffic Conditions in the TNC Era with Taxi Data

This paper uses Philadelphia's taxi data between January 2015 and December 2017 to analyze the spatial and temporal characteristics of taxi trip declines after the launch of transportation network company (TNC) services. Findings show declining number of taxi trips throughout the day and worsening congestion in downtown. Multilevel models indicate that wealthier neighborhoods correspond to bigger taxi trip losses, while neighborhoods with higher transit use correspond to smaller trip declines. Findings inform traffic management efforts and help identify residents' potential travel needs. Other cities can apply methods outlined in this study to taxi and TNC data to investigate their traffic conditions and transport needs.