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NYC taxi visualization

nyctaxi.herokuapp.com

41–50 of 80 posts

Re: NYC taxi visualization

#42
post #29

I watched a few different cabs and they all seemed to generate around $600 in a 24 hour period. Am I the only person who thinks this is astonishingly low?

They lose a lot to fees, car stuff, gas, variable customer, routes people want them to take (and time to find a new fare) etc. They probably make around $25 an hour. I'm not sure what that looks like in New York but it sounds alright.

Re: NYC taxi visualization

#43
post #4

I was surprised by the amount of fares that just went a few blocks. Looks like it should have been pretty walkable in a lot of those cases.

https://github.com/akuchlous/NYC_CAB_ANALYTICS/blob/gh-pages... data from chriswong : 22% rides are less 1 mile long

Small nit, but guessing this is crow's flight distance which doesn't equal path distance. Regardless, this still isn't surprising. Short rides happen all the time.

Re: NYC taxi visualization

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://github.com/akuchlous/NYC_CAB_ANALYTICS/blob/gh-pages... data from chriswong : 22% rides are less 1 mile long

Small nit, but guessing this is crow's flight distance which doesn't equal path distance. Regardless, this still isn't surprising. Short rides happen all the time.

:-) this data is equal path as measured by odometer : I was lazy and did not use longitude/latitude for distance. The data itself has miles travelled.

though a bit surprising : 45% of rides are single person rides. But then I wonder : what's surprising : is it low or is it high?

Re: NYC taxi visualization

#45
post #32

Seems like this data could be used to build an app that suggests where a taxi driver should go at any given time to maximize their chances of getting a fare. Uber & Lyft already do this for their drivers, but I'm not aware of any app that does this for NYC yellow cabs.

Do they really? I just asked my Uber driver yesterday and he said that Uber does not provide him anything like that. I was quite surprised.

An UberX driver said the same to me and I was surprised as well, but after thinking about it, it started to make more sense. What could Uber really tell them beforehand that they wouldn't already know, or learn very quickly from driving around?

The driver thought Uber didn't provide the information because they want to be able to charge surge pricing, but that cannot be right. Uber doesn't want to charge surge prices unless they absolutely have to because they reduce the number of rides people take.

Considering how much money Uber invests in giving away free rides and temporarily reducing prices to increase ridership, they clearly see a lot of value per ride, especially for travelers who are more likely to be at an event, try Uber for the first time, and then bring that demand home to their own cities.

Surge pricing only makes sense in situations where drivers need additional incentive to go out in the first place.

Re: NYC taxi visualization

#47
post #32

Seems like this data could be used to build an app that suggests where a taxi driver should go at any given time to maximize their chances of getting a fare. Uber & Lyft already do this for their drivers, but I'm not aware of any app that does this for NYC yellow cabs.

Do they really? I just asked my Uber driver yesterday and he said that Uber does not provide him anything like that. I was quite surprised.

They use the data for pricing I believe.

Re: NYC taxi visualization

#48

Seems like this data could be used to build an app that suggests where a taxi driver should go at any given time to maximize their chances of getting a fare. Uber & Lyft already do this for their drivers, but I'm not aware of any app that does this for NYC yellow cabs.

:-) i thought that was no market for it : i wrote the heat map for specifically that purpose :

Where People Are in NYC ? Look at places where taxi pick up their passengers :

Guide To Uber Drivers : Where to get passengers at given time of day

https://github.com/akuchlous/NYC_CAB_ANALYTICS

Re: NYC taxi visualization

#49

I was surprised at how inefficient some of the drivers' behavior was. I thought after dropping off a fare they would all immediately head to an area they knew of that might have a high likelihood of generating fares. Instead many of them seem to just wander around aimlessly looking for the next fare. edit: spelling / grammar

It's also the case that taxi drivers need to eat, use the toilet, do their shopping, see the sights, etc. They aren't robots, and they don't necessarily have to dash to the next customer in a mad scramble for survival.

Imagine if somebody made a visualization of your workday and put it out in public. Would your manager say "he seems to just wander around aimlessly instead of efficiently moving from one piece of code to the next. I thought after compiling one project, they would all immediately head to the next one."

Re: NYC taxi visualization

#50
post #34

Seems like this data could be used to build an app that suggests where a taxi driver should go at any given time to maximize their chances of getting a fare. Uber & Lyft already do this for their drivers, but I'm not aware of any app that does this for NYC yellow cabs.

Most taxi drivers already know the right time/areas to go to get hailed, and to get the kind of hails they want(IE not to JFK or LGA, the bronx, most of queens/BK). Even though it is just tribal knowledge, I'd be really surprised if it wasn't largely accurate.

Why don't they want to get hailed to JFK?
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