Effect of Social Vulnerability on Taxi Trip Times during Hurricane Sandy

Abstract

The increase in the availability of GPS-based movement data has enabled the exploration of mobility patterns in urban transportation networks. Understanding the relationship between social vulnerability and transportation flows from big data during natural disasters is crucial for utilities and policymakers for decision-making purposes, such as evacuation and restoration planning. In this study, we explore the geographic variation of changes in trip times of taxi trips in New York City (NYC) before and after Hurricane Sandy (2012) using GPS trajectory data in relation to the underlying socio-economic distribution of impacted populations using localized regression technique with GWR. The findings reveal how the spatial patterns of trip change times with respect to SVI, income levels and population density in NYC.