Abstract:

In the cities of the 21st century, taxicabs become an important component supporting the urban public transportation system. The convenience and efficiency of taxi services will promote the urban daily activities and business activities, so as to increase the accessibility of urban space.  Exploring the approach of time geography, this paper establishes its data base through cluster sampling questionnaire of 350 taxi drivers’ daily activities in Beijing.  It’s found that the out-dining space of taxi drivers is more likely to locate between the second and third rings road, near the expressway, and are intended to agglomerate along diagonal direction streets, river banks and administrative boundaries. Typical daily paths based on in-depth interview of taxi drivers reveal that both individual characters and external constrains affect on the dining time-spatial decision. Specifically, individual characters such as the residential location and serving shifts influence the habit of long-term out-dining behavior, while the constrains such as economic affordability, passengers need and the viability to park influence the selection of a certain dining spot. Responding to the mismatch between dining service provision and taxi driver’s needs, suggestions are put forward from the perspective of urban planning. These suggestions include the establishing of more multi-functional driver’s centers in the gateway of a city and driving-through taking away food cafés, and prolonging the business hours of the existing dining facilities. It’s believed to provide some implications to build up an efficient urban public transportation system which meets the various and flexible daily commuting needs of citizens in the contemporary urban China.

Key words: daily path；Beijing, out-dining behavioral space, taxi driver, time geography