As modern transportation systems become more complex, there is need for
mobile applications that allow travelers to navigate efficiently in cities. In
taxi transport the recent proliferation of Uber has introduced new norms
including a flexible pricing scheme where journey costs can change rapidly
depending on passenger demand and driver supply. To make informed choices on
the most appropriate provider for their journeys, travelers need access to
knowledge about provider pricing in real time. To this end, we developed
OpenStreetcab a mobile application that offers advice on taxi transport
comparing provider prices. We describe its development and deployment in two
cities, London and New York, and analyse thousands of user journey queries to
compare the price patterns of Uber against major local taxi providers. We have
observed large heterogeneity across the taxi transport markets in the two
cities. This motivated us to perform a price validation and measurement
experiment on the ground comparing Uber and Black Cabs in London. The
experimental results reveal interesting insights: not only they confirm
feedback on pricing and service quality received by professional drivers users,
but also they reveal the tradeoffs between prices and journey times between
taxi providers. With respect to journey times in particular, we show how
experienced taxi drivers, in the majority of the cases, are able to navigate
faster to a destination compared to drivers who rely on modern navigation
systems. We provide evidence that this advantage becomes stronger in the centre
of a city where urban density is high