Studying the Travel Direction Patterns in Urban Mobility: A Case Study of Taxis

Travel direction is important information in urban mobility and reflects the trend of urban travel. Understanding travel direction patterns in urban mobility is crucial for urban planning, transportation management, and resource allocation. Through analyzing the travel direction distribution and direction entropy of three taxi trip datasets from Chengdu, New York City and Beijing, this research examines the relationship between travel behavior and city structure by analyzing travel direction patterns in urban mobility. The analysis reveals that travel direction distributions are influenced by city morphology, indicating a connection with urban shape and temporal factors. Moreover, spatial heterogeneity in travel direction entropy is across different city regions, highlighting varying levels of mobility chaos. Additionally, the analysis reveals temporal variations in travel direction entropy during weekdays, and weekends, reflecting temporal regularities in mobility. These findings contribute to a better understanding of population movement dynamics and inform urban planning and transportation management strategies.