Multiple abrupt phase transitions in urban transport congestion Articles uri icon

authors

  • LAMPO, ANIELLO
  • BORGE HOLTHOEFER, JAVIER
  • GOMÉZ, SERGIO
  • SOLÉ RIBALTA, ALBERT

publication date

  • March 2021

issue

  • 1, 013267

volume

  • 3

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 2643-1564

abstract

  • During the last decades, the study of cities has been transformed by new approaches combining engineering
    and complexity sciences. Network theory is playing a central role, facilitating the quantitative analysis of crucial
    urban dynamics, such as mobility, city growth, or urban planning. In this work we focus on the spatial aspects of
    congestion. Analyzing a large amount of real city networks, we show that the location of the onset of congestion
    changes according to the considered urban area, defining, in turn, a set of congestion regimes separated by
    abrupt transitions. To help unveiling this spatial dependencies of congestion (in terms of network betweenness
    analysis), we introduce a family of planar road network models composed by a dense urban center connected to
    an arboreal periphery. These models, coined as GT and DT-MST models, allow us to analytically, numerically,
    and experimentally describe how and why congestion emerges in particular geographical areas of monocentric
    cities and, subsequently, to describe the congestion regimes and the factors that promote the appearance of
    their abrupt transitions. We show that the fundamental ingredient behind the observed abrupt transitions is the
    spatial separation between the urban center and the periphery, and the number of separated areas that form the
    periphery. Elaborating on the implications of our results, we show that they may have influence in the design and
    optimization of road networks regarding urban growth and the management of daily traffic dynamics.