Evaluating the Nonlinear Impacts of Built Environment on Online Car-Hailing: Focus on the Whole Day

Understanding the relationship between the built environment and online car-hailing travel behavior can greatly influence sustainable urban development. These complex impacts are not fully understood from a whole-day perspective. This paper took the central urban area of Nanning, China as a case study, and analyzed the data of 1,154,759 online car-hailing service orders collected by the Nanning Information Center over the course of a week. Thiessen polygons based on road networks were used to divide the research area. A partial dependence plot and random forest regression were used to examine the nonlinear impacts of the built environment (home-work attributes, traffic facility attributes, land use, and diversity) on online car-hailing trip demand throughout the day. The results show that the built environment elements that affect the demand for online car-hailing differ at different times of the day and that they have different ranges of influence. For example, residential areas play an important role in the commuter period for demand with a contribution rate of 33.2%, while the contribution rates for the remaining periods are less than 5%. In the whole day, cultural services, health services, leisure sports services, and catering services are important factors. And if there are enough training institutions to form a separate trading area within a city, this will have a profound impact on travel demand. In comparison to subway stations, bus stations contribute more to the demand. The study results will assist the government in improving urban transportation coordination.