Revealing the Varying Impact of Urban Built Environment on Online Car-Hailing Travel in Spatio-Temporal Dimension: An Exploratory Analysis in Chengdu, China

Abstract

Online car-hailing travel is an increasingly popular mode of urban transport. A fundamental understanding of the relationship between the urban built environment and online car-hailing travel is essential for developing the corresponding traffic strategy and addressing sustainable urban planning and design. However, the varying impact of the urban built environment on online car-hailing travel in the spatial dimension has not been sufficiently investigated. This paper aims to fill this gap by using geographically weighted regression (GWR) to check the spatial heterogeneity of the likely influence. The result shows that the GWR model is superior to the global model (OLS) from the perspective of goodness of fit. The study finds that the recreation and entertainment Point of Interest (POI) and the residential district POI are the most influential factors on night online car-hailing travel. Land-use mix is found to have a positive effect on online car-hailing travel, and online car-hailing services can be a complementary mode for public transport, especially in suburban areas.