Methodology

1. Routing & distance

Trip geometry comes from OpenStreetMap via an OSRM public instance. We request automobile profiles with realistic turn penalties - not straight-line or great-circle shortcuts - then persist distance (metres) and baseline duration (seconds).

Airport landing pages pin predefined coordinates for terminals and downtown anchors so estimates remain comparable trip-to-trip; generic calculator flows geocode free-text addresses through Nominatim.

2. Traffic bands (taxi)

Taxis bill idle time when speed drops below regulator thresholds. We synthesise three duration multiples - light, typical and heavy congestion - around the free-flow OSRM duration and feed them through the same meter logic. That yields min · median · max fare rows rather than a misleading single figure.

3. Tariff encoding

JSON tariff bundles mirror official schedules: base fare, distance increments, time rates, night and rush multipliers, luggage rules and enumerated taxes. Where regulators publish flat airport fares, we map endpoints to those keys so eligible routes bypass incremental metering automatically.

Records ship with cited URLs and last verified dates; stale rows fail automated verification until refreshed.

4. Rideshare modeling

Uber, Lyft, Bolt and Careem do not expose quote APIs for third parties. We therefore import published base, distance, time and booking fees per city, compute an unsurged estimate for the routed trip, then bracket an approximate surge corridor so high-demand periods are visible - never hidden inside a fake exact price.

5. Transit references

Transit fares are tabular citations, not calculated tickets. Agencies bill by zones, medium and time-of-day - impossible to replicate honestly without their fare engines - so we publish snapshots plus rider caveats and link straight to operator documentation.

6. Tipping & cultural norms

Where tipping is customary, percentage hints are displayed separately from regulator-mandated meter totals so gratuity is never silently folded into the median taxi band.