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Why you don't get taxis in Singapore when it rains?

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Dankoo

Dankoo

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Sharing from this link: Taxis in SGP

 

 

Why you don't get taxis in Singapore when it rains?

Zafar Anjum | Oct. 3, 2012

 

 

It is common experience that when it rains, it is difficult to get a cab in Singapore-even when you try to call one in or use your smartphone app to book one.

 

Why does it happen? What could be the reason behind it?

 

Most people would think that this unavailability of taxis during rain is because of high demand for cab services.

 

Well, Big Data has a very surprising answer for you, as astonishing as it was for researcher Oliver Senn.

 

In 2011, Oliver Senn, a senior research engineer with the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), spent five months working on a joint initiative to give real-time data and insights to citizens to help them improve their city, according to storage and Big Data solutions company EMC. EMC revealed this case study at an event in Singapore on Tuesday (2 October).

 

When Senn was first given his assignment to compare two months of weather satellite data with 830 million GPS records of 80 million taxi trips, he was a little disappointed. "Everyone in Singapore knows it's impossible to get a taxi in a rainstorm," says Senn, "so I expected the data to basically confirm that assumption." As he sifted through the data related to a vast fleet of more than 16,000 taxicabs, a strange pattern emerged: it appeared that many taxis weren't moving during rainstorms. In fact, the GPS records showed that when it rained (a frequent occurrence in this tropical island state), many drivers pulled over and didn't pick up passengers at all.

 

Senn confirmed his findings by sitting down with drivers. And what did he learn?

 

He learned that the company owning most of the island's taxis would withhold S$1,000 (about US$800) from a driver's salary immediately after an accident until it was determined who was at fault. The process could take months, and the drivers had independently decided that it simply wasn't worth the risk of having their livelihood tangled up in bureaucracy for that long. So when it started raining, they simply pulled over and waited out the storm.

 

This unexpected revelation, a direct result of the data study, stunned the company.

 

Now, armed with this insight, they are strategising about how to fix a policy that obviously doesn't work for customers, drivers, or the parent company. Says Senn: "This was a powerful example of how one of the world's most data-driven countries is improving the lives of its citizens by providing scientists and researchers with access to that data."

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Darryn

Darryn

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  On 10/4/2012 at 9:13 AM, Mockngbrd said:

now we know.....

 

Yep - we know exactly how a bullying employer can have unexpected outcomes.

 

The system needs to be changed...

 

BTW - Since when do drivers get a "salary"? I thought they were daily hirers?

 

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Mockngbrd

Mockngbrd

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  On 10/4/2012 at 9:16 AM, Darryn said:

Yep - we know exactly how a bullying employer can have unexpected outcomes.

 

The system needs to be changed...

 

BTW - Since when do drivers get a "salary"? I thought they were daily hirers?

maybe no Salary but drivers will auto kenna $1k "fine"?

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SLSAMG88

SLSAMG88

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We needed a researcher from MIT to tell us that?

 

Just sit down with one of the taxi uncles as they are sipping their kopi and ask them lah!

 

Waste of money sometimes...

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Mustank

Mustank

Hypersonic
  On 10/4/2012 at 9:19 AM, SLSAMG88 said:

We needed a researcher from MIT to tell us that?

 

Just sit down with one of the taxi uncles as they are sipping their kopi and ask them lah!

 

Waste of money sometimes...

 

well said!!! [thumbsup]

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Soya

Soya

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  On 10/4/2012 at 9:10 AM, Dankoo said:

" As he sifted through the data related to a vast fleet of more than 16,000 taxicabs, a strange pattern emerged: it appeared that many taxis weren't moving during rainstorms. In fact, the GPS records showed that when it rained (a frequent occurrence in this tropical island state), many drivers pulled over and didn't pick up passengers at all.

 

 

errrmmm.....could it occur to the researcher that all these teksi pulled over to wait for phone bookings instead?

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Vidz

Vidz

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(edited)

reminds me of a another bog joke...

 

after months of study with big-wig consultants... the marina bay area is renamed "Marina Bay"!

Edited by Vidz
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Kyrios

Kyrios

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Sometimes the most logical answer just doesnt apply....

 

Maybe we do the same to employers to find out why they dont hire locals (or the real situation) or always complain shortage of FTs...maybe a similar stunning answer will show up.. [scholar]

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Soya

Soya

Supersonic
  On 10/4/2012 at 9:38 AM, Vidz said:

reminds me of a another bog joke...

 

after months of study with big-wig consultants... the Marina Bay area is renamed "Marina Bay"!

 

 

Muz be the same genius who decided on the winning entry for the naming of the budget terminal as Budget Terminal. [laugh]

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Darryn

Darryn

Turbocharged
  On 10/4/2012 at 9:42 AM, Soya said:

Muz be the same genius who decided on the winning entry for the naming of the budget terminal as Budget Terminal. [laugh]

 

Which has been torn down and is set to be replaced by "T4" - by the ever original and imaginative Sg govt body

 

 

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Soya

Soya

Supersonic
  On 10/4/2012 at 9:46 AM, Darryn said:

Which has been torn down and is set to be replaced by "T4" - by the ever original and imaginative Sg govt body

 

 

but to be fair, most airport terminals in the world at named by T1, T2, etc.

 

at least this time, they din waste time & money to hold a naming competition when it's obvious they weren't the least interested in it. <_<

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Kiadaw

Kiadaw

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I recently did an independence research on the flooding problem of Singapore. After deep study of weather pattern, & climate change effect among other things too technical to discuss with laymen here, I concluded that Flooding is cause by intense rain.

 

I hope to present this discovery to the URA soon. I wasn't expect to get paid handsomely (but I won't not reject payment, out of courtesy), but an award or recognition would be nice, for helping Singapore to make our city better. [:p]

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Darryn

Darryn

Turbocharged
  On 10/4/2012 at 10:01 AM, Kiadaw said:

I recently did an independence research on the flooding problem of Singapore. After deep study of weather pattern, & climate change effect among other things too technical to discuss with laymen here, I concluded that Flooding is cause by intense rain.

 

I hope to present this discovery to the URA soon. I wasn't expect to get paid handsomely (but I won't not reject payment, out of courtesy), but an award or recognition would be nice, for helping Singapore to make our city better. [:p]

 

I dispute your findings.

 

Flooding is actually caused by too much aircon.

 

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