Transportation Systems and

Networks
 The Transportation System
System for moving passengers or goods from one place to
another.
Core Components of Transportation System
Conceptualization of Transportation System

The transport system can be conceptualized as the set of

relationships between nodes, networks and the demand.

These relationships involve:

Locations to spatially expressing this demand,

Flows between them and
Infrastructures designed to handle these flows.

All the components of a transport system are designed to

facilitate the movements of passengers, freight and
information, either as separate or joint components.
 Conceptualization of Transportation System…
• Demand. A derived function for the movement of people,
freight and information for a variety of socioeconomic
activities.
• Nodes. Where movements are originating, ending and
transiting (intermediacy); points of entry or exit in a transport
system. They vary according to the geographical scale being
considered ranging from local nodes (such as a subway station)
to global nodes (such as port or airport terminals).
• Networks. Composed of a set of linkages expressing the
connectivity between places and the capacity to handle
passenger or cargo volumes.
 Conceptualization of Transportation System…
Demand. A derived function for the movement of people, freight and information for a
variety of socioeconomic activities.
Nodes. Where movements are originating, ending and transiting (intermediacy); points
of entry or exit in a transport system. They vary according to the geographical scale
being considered ranging from local nodes (such as a subway station) to global nodes
(such as port or airport terminals).
Networks. Composed of a set of linkages expressing the connectivity between places
and the capacity to handle passenger or cargo volumes.

Locations. Nodes where demand is expressed as an origin, destination or point of

transit. The level of spatial accumulation of socioeconomic activities (production and
consumption) jointly defines demand and where this demand is taking place.
Flows. The amount of traffic over a network composed of nodes and linkages. This is
jointly a function of the demand and the capacity of the linkages to support them.
Infrastructures. The conveyances such as roads and terminals expressing the physical
reality of a network and designed to handle a demand with specific volume and
frequency characteristics. Facilities enabling access to a network are jointly
characterized by their centrality and the linkages that radiate from them.
Conceptualization of Transportation System…
 Network…
The term network refers to the framework of routes within a system of
locations, identified as nodes.

A route is a single link between two nodes that are part of a larger network
that can refer to tangible routes such as roads and rails, or less tangible
routes such as air and sea corridors.
KONINGSBERG PROBLEM
 KONINGSBERG PROBLEM

The classical problem of the seven bridges of

Konigsberg introduced perhaps the first
transportation network in a scientific sense.
 KONINGSBERG PROBLEM…

• Königsberg was a city in Prussia

situated on the Pregel River (Today,
the city is named Kaliningrad, and
is a major industrial and
commercial center of western
Russia).
• A river Pregel flows around the
island Keniphof and then divides
into two.
• Seven bridges spanned the various
branches of the river, as shown.
• It became a tradition to try to walk
around the town in a way that only
crossed each bridge once, but it
proved to be a difficult problem.
 KONINGSBERG PROBLEM…
Idea was to determine whether it’s possible to walk across all the
bridges exactly once in returning back to the starting land area.

•In 1736 Euler proved that the walk was not possible to do. No Eulerian
walk of the Konigsberg bridge problem since all four vertices are of odd
edges.

• He proved this by inventing a kind of diagram called a network, that is

made up of vertices (dots where lines meet) and arcs (lines). Define the
degree of a vertex to be the number of edges incident to it.

•He used four dots (vertices) for the two riverbanks and the two
islands. These have been marked A, B and C, D. Euler showed that there
is a walk starting at any vertex, going through each edge exactly once
and terminating at the start vertex iff the degree of each vertex is even.
This walk is called Eulerian. The seven lines (arcs) are the seven bridges.
 KONINGSBERG PROBLEM…

c C
d g

A
e D
Kneiphof

C
g
a f c d
B b e
A D
a b
f
 Transportation Network
A transport network, or transportation network is a
realization of a spatial network, describing a structure
which permits either vehicular movement or flow of
some commodity.

Examples are network of roads and streets, railways,

pipes, aqueducts, and power lines. One can
distinguish land, sea and air transportation networks.
Transportation Network
Transportation Network…

Valjevo City Network

Transportation Network…

Allahabad City Network

 Transport Network Analysis
Transport network analysis is used to determine the flow of
vehicles (or people) through a transport network, typically
using mathematical graph theory. It may combine different
modes of transport, for example, walking and car, to model
multi-modal journeys.

Transport network analysis falls within the field of transport

engineering..
 Transport Network Analysis..
• Am I serving my customers from the right depot?
• Where should I put an additional depot and what capacity
should it have?
• Can I reduce my sourcing costs?
• How do I reduce my Transport Costs?
• What is the impact / cost of extending the customer base?
• Can I achieve the same service level and reduce cost by
changing my network design?
• What is the impact on transport of changing delivery
frequencies / delivery days?
 Transport Network Analysis..
• What cost savings could be realised through integrated
transport: Primary / Secondary / Customer Collections?
 Transport Network Analysis...
• Public Works department wishes to build enough new roads
so that the five towns in a certain county will all be
connected to one another either directly or via another town.
The cost of constructing a highway between each pair of
towns is known. Find the least cost path to connect them.
Transport Network Analysis…
• To find service areas around any location on a network.
• A network service area is a region that encompasses all
accessible streets (that is, streets that are within a specified
impedance).
• For instance, the 5-minute service area for a point on a network
includes all the streets that can be reached within five minutes
from that point.

Service Area Analysis

 Transport Network Analysis…
 Scheduling efficient routes for reading water or electric
meters
 Creating routes for delivering mail or for making other
door-to-door deliveries (phone books, flyers, etc.)
 Collecting trash or recyclable materials at curbside
Transport Network Analysis…

Service Area Analysis

Transport Network Analysis…

Service Area Analysis…

Transport Network Analysis…

Vehicle Routing
Transport Network Analysis…

Linear Referencing
Transport Network Analysis…

Closest Facility
Transport Network Analysis…

Location Allocation Problem

Transport Network Analysis…

Location Allocation Problem

Location Allocation Problem Types

Transport Network Analysis…
Transport Network Analysis…
Transportation Supply and Demand
 Supply
• Supply is expressed in terms of infrastructures (capacity),
services (frequency) and networks (coverage).

• The number of passengers, volume (for liquids or

containerized traffic), or mass (for freight) that can be
transported per unit of time and space is commonly used to
quantify transport supply.
 Supply…
• During a specific time period, the discrepancy between the
volume of traffic that traverses an existing link and the link’s
capacity to handle through traffic creates the need for
additional capacity on the link. In terms of new construction,
it is assumed that new links always connect to established
places.

• However those links may create new places when they

intersect.
Supply…
 Supply…
• Modal supply: The supply of one mode influences the supply of others,
such for roads where different modes compete for the same
infrastructure, especially in congested areas. For instance, transport
supply for cars and trucks is inversely proportional since they share the
same road infrastructure.

• Intermodal supply: Transport supply is also dependent of the

transshipment capacity of intermodal infrastructures. For instance, the
maximum number flights per day between New York and Chicago
cannot be superior to the daily capacity of the airports of New York and
Chicago, even though the New York - Chicago air corridor has
potentially a very high capacity.
 Demand
• It is expressed in terms of number of people, volume, or tons per unit
of time and space.

• Transport demand is represented by Tij; the transport demand

between location i and j.

• The potential transport demand is the amount of traffic if transport

costs were negligible or there were limited constraints to mobility such
as unlimited capacity.

• The realized transport demand, a subset of the potential transport

demand, is the traffic that actually takes place, namely in function of
the transport costs between the origins and the destinations.

• The realized demand is therefore an outcome of the constraints

imposed by the existing transport supply.
Supply and Demand Relationship
 Capacity
• Capacity is often assessed in static and dynamic terms.
• The capacity of transportation infrastructures and modes,
generally defined over a geographically defined transport
system and for a specific period of time.
 Static capacity represents the amount of space available for
transport (e.g. terminal surface).
 Dynamic capacity are the improvement that can be made
through better technology and management.
 Capacity…
• Improving dynamic capacity is a straightforward strategy to improve the
efficiency and productivity of transport assets.

• However, at some point an optimal level dynamic capacity is achieved and

nominal capacity can only be improved through additional static capacity.

• Optimal nominal capacity cannot be effectively achieved particularly since

a specific transport facility or infrastructure is linked with others, so that
capacity improvements must be synchronized.

• For instance, a port terminal operating near optimum nominal capacity is

facing serious congestion issues in the form of queuing at the terminal's
access points; ships may be queuing on the harbor side to access the
terminal while trucks may be waiting at the gate to pick up or deliver
containers.
Time
 Time…
The ongoing growth of networks are usually measured in
decades.

Over such a long duration, network growth is usually treated as a

sequential process, by which changes to a network are
implemented in discrete periods.

This is consistent with the current practice of transportation

engineering and planning, in which designs and plans are drawn
in discrete planning horizons, land use /travel demand
forecasting are carried out in incremental periods, and
transportation projects are reviewed and funded periodically.
 Space
Transport geography is concerned with movements that take
place over space and the physical features of this space impose
major constraints on transportation systems, in terms of what
mode can be used, the extent of the service, its costs, capacity
and reliability.

Three basic spatial constraints of the terrestrial space can be

identified:

Topography
Hydrology
Climate
Spatial Structure and Transportation
 Spatial Structure and Transportation…
Location implies the setting of a system of reference (coordinate system)
from which it is absolutely located.

Distance is a measure of the friction of space when a movement occurs

and cannot be evaluated without at least two known locations. This friction
can be expressed according to several factors such as length, time, cost,
effort, energy or even the psychological perception of distance as a
deterrent.

Fixedness. Since locations are fixed (absolute) disparities are incurred,

because economic, social and political conditions change in space and
time whereas the geographical location remains the same.
 Spatial Structure and Transportation…
Attributes.

All locations have different geographical attributes. These attributes are

the set of specific characteristics that are relevant to a location, notably its
resources.

Population can also be considered as a resource through the labor it

provides (qualifications and costs). The fact that different locations have
different attributes is an important factor behind the generation and
attraction of movement.
 Spatial Structure and Transportation…

Relativity. All locations are relative since they must be considered

in a wider context and since a location is often located by drawing
reference to another. The importance of a location changes with
regards to its importance relative to other locations and to the
scale at which the comparison is made (local, regional or global).
The relative position changes in time and with the development of
activities.

Dynamics involves three major issues. First, changes at a location

impact linked locations. Second, if a new link is created, the
importance locations bound to this link will change. Third,
whatever the nature of change, the effect will be positive or
negative.
Scale of Spatial Structure of Transportation
 Hierarchy of Network
The hierarchy of network categorizes roads of network according to
their functions and capacities.

While sources differ on the exact nomenclature, the basic hierarchy

comprises freeways, arterials, sub-arterials, collectors, and local roads.
 Hierarchy of Network…

Freeways and Expressways

Multilane Highways

State Highways
Mobility

Major District Roads

Other District Roads

Village Roads

Access
Hierarchy of Network…
Hierarchy of Network…
Hierarchy of Network…
Urban Road Classification (IRC-
106:1990)
Urban Road Classification (IRC-
106:1990)
 Urban Road Classification (IRC-
86:1983)
Sub-arterials: These are functionally similar to arterials but with somewhat lower
level of travel mobility. Their spacing may vary from about 0.5 km in the central
business district to 3-5 km in the sub urban fringes.

Collector Streets: The function of collector streets is to collect traffic from local
streets and feed it to the arterial and sub-arterial streets or vice-versa. These may
be located in residential neighbourhoods, business areas and industrial areas.
Normally, full access is allowed on these streets from abutting properties. There are
few parking restrictions except during the peak hours.

Local Streets: These are intended primarily to provide access to abutting property
and normally do not carry large volumes of traffic. Majority of trips in urban areas
either originate from or terminate on these streets. Local streets may be residential,
commercial or industrial, depending on the predominant use of the adjoining land.
They allow unrestricted parking and pedestrian movements.
Classification of Non-Urban Roads
Classification of Non-Urban Roads…
Classification of Non-Urban Roads…
Classification of Non-Urban Roads…
Classification of Non-Urban Roads…
 Topology of Network

Network topology looks at the arrangement of nodes and links, particularly their
locations and the nature of their connections. Network connectivity involves a
specific configuration of links and nodes. Links indicate which nodes are linked and
how they are linked, namely with a directional attribute. Nodes indicate how it is
possible to access connected links, namely as a link being an entry and/or an exit to
the node.
Topology of Network…
Topology of Network…
Topology of Network…
Topology of Network…
Topology of Network…
Topology of Network…
 Sequence of the Network
Geographical expansion of a transportation network can be
represented as a sequence of link additions to the network based on
myopic, local optimal decisions made in discrete time periods.

The sequential deployment of a surface transportation network over

space and time, which assumes the form of “link addition problems”
that have been defined in transportation geography (Haggett and
Chorley, 1969), deals with how links will be added among a set of
fixed nodes to create an efficient network.

Haggett, P., & Chorley, R. (1969). 1969: Network analysis in

geography. London: Edward Arnold.

L. Leblanc. An algorithm for the discrete network design problem.

Transportation Science, 9(3): 183, 1975
Topology of Network…