Revealing the impact of storm surge on taxi operations: Evidence from taxi and typhoon trajectory data

Storm surges are one of the most destructive natural ocean disasters in the world, which pose a great threat to economic development, public safety, and transport in coastal cities. Investigating the response of urban traffic conditions during storm surges and discovering sensitive urban areas are crucial to urban planning, disaster prevention, and emergency rescue. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of typhoons on taxi operations to target sensitive areas of the city. In this study, the change in taxi service operation in Shenzhen during typhoon storm surges from 2012 to 2014 was explored at the city district scale using a diverse set of data including taxi trajectory data, typhoon track data, and tide level data. Several aspects were included to access this impact, for example the number of daily orders per taxi, the trip length, the degree of closeness to the typhoon-affected area, the coverage area of the taxi service, and the spatial dynamics of the origin and destination matrix. The regular trend and correlation of storm surge elements and taxi parameters were first analyzed. The distribution of the taxi trajectory data was then used to detect variations in the service area, and the reasons for these variations were discussed. The result shows that storm surges with diverse characteristics do affect taxi operations to differing degrees, and that there was a potential correlation between tide level and taxi service area. The sensitive areas for taxis during typhoon storm surges were mainly located at the boundary between the central urban area and other districts of Shenzhen, they were constrained by the dynamic changes in the origins and destinations, and they were likely related to important transportation hubs in the city. This finding provides a reference to support disaster prevention preparedness and decision-making by local authorities.