Inferring land use from spatialtemporal taxi ride data

Abstract

Different functions of urban spaces generate travel demand, and urban travel inversely influences urban spaces. Collective human mobility patterns can reveal land use patterns and urban structure although previous studies constrained the area around transportation stations. This paper explores the relationship between urban movements and land use patterns of a whole city using taxi ridership data in Seoul, South Korea. This study takes advantages of taxi datasets that are not bounded by routes and stations and contain more precise information in terms of space and time. In addition, we verify the connection between land use and travel patterns using a statistical method. To reveal the interaction between trip mobility patterns and land use, taxi ridership patterns are grouped by a clustering method. Each clustered pattern is then analyzed with the corresponding urban context. We also statistically verify the relationship between land use and the pattern clusters, and show that the seven obtained clusters can be categorized into four types and were significantly correlated with land use. Furthermore, more detailed land use can be classified using the spatiotemporal properties of taxi ridership patterns. The proposed method is expected to monitor change in land use development.