Bin Jiang et al J. Stat. Mech. (2008) P07008 doi:10.1088/1742-5468/2008/07/P07008
Bin Jiang, Sijian Zhao and Junjun Yin
Show affiliationsIn this paper, we extended road-based topological analysis to both nationwide and urban road networks, and concentrated on a sensitivity study with respect to the formation of self-organized natural roads based on the Gestalt principle of good continuity. Both annual average daily traffic (AADT) and global positioning system (GPS) data were used to correlate with a series of ranking metrics including five centrality-based metrics and two PageRank metrics. It was found that there exists a tipping point from segment-based to road-based network topology in terms of correlation between ranking metrics and their traffic. To our great surprise, (1) this correlation is significantly improved if a selfish rather than utopian strategy is adopted in forming the self-organized natural roads, and (2) point-based metrics assigned by summation into individual roads tend to have a much better correlation with traffic flow than line-based metrics. These counter-intuitive surprising findings constitute emergent properties of self-organized natural roads, which are intelligent enough for predicting traffic flow, thus shedding substantial light on the understanding of road networks and their traffic from the perspective of complex networks.
E-print Number: 0804.1630
Cited: by |
Refers: to
45.70.Vn Granular models of complex systems; traffic flow
05.70.Fh Phase transitions: general studies
89.75.Hc Networks and genealogical trees
Issue 07 (July 2008)
Received 16 April 2008, accepted for publication 11 June 2008
Published 9 July 2008
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