2020/08/28 by Saeed Vasebi, Vasebi, Saeed, Yeganeh M. Hayeri +1
Business, Management and Accounting · Engineering · Social Sciences · #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Electrical engineering #FOS: Physical sciences #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) #Smart Parking Systems Research #Systems and Control (eess.SY) #Transportation Planning and Optimization #Transportation and Mobility Innovations #electronic engineering #information engineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2008.12530
openalex publication_date 2020/08/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The taxi business has been overly regulated for many decades. Regulations are\nsupposed to ensure safety and fairness within a controlled competitive\nenvironment. By influencing both drivers and riders choices and behaviors,\nemerging e-hailing services (e.g., Uber and Lyft) have been reshaping the\nexisting competition in the last few years. This study investigates the\nexisting competition between the mainstream hailing services (i.e., Yellow and\nGreen Cabs) and e-hailing services (i.e., Uber) in New York City. Their\ncompetition is investigated in terms of market segmentation, emerging demands,\nand regulations. Data visualization techniques are employed to find existing\nand new patterns in travel behavior. For this study, we developed a multi-agent\nmodel and applied reinforcement learning techniques to imitate drivers\nbehaviors. The model is verified by the patterns recognized in our data\nvisualization results. The model is then used to evaluate multiple new\nregulations and competition scenarios. Results of our study illustrate that≠-hailers dominate low-travel-density areas (e.g., residential areas), and that≠-hailers quickly identify and respond to change in travel demand. This leads\nto diminishing market size for hailers. Furthermore, our results confirm the\nindirect impact of Green Cabs regulations on the existing competition. This\ninvestigation, along with our proposed scenarios, can aid policymakers and\nauthorities in designing policies that could effectively address demand while\nassuring a healthy competition for the hailing and e-haling sectors.\n Keywords: taxi; Uber, policy; E-hailing; multi-agent simulation;\nreinforcement learning;\n