A global take on congestion in urban areas

Dados Bibliográficos

ID19086447
AutoresMarc Barthélemy (0000-0003-0890-9713, Institut de Physique Théorique Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique, France; Centre d'Analyse et de Mathématique Sociales École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, France, autor correspondente)
Ano2016
Volume43
Fascículo5
Páginas800-804
Data de publicação2016-05-17
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEnvironment and Planning B Planning and Design (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0265-8135 • E-ISSN: 1472-3417
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0265813516649955
OpenAlexW2340411551
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas9

We analyze the congestion data collected by a GPS device company (TomTom) for almost 300 urban areas in the world. Using simple scaling arguments and data fitting we show that congestion during peak hours in large cities grows essentially as the square root of the population density. This result, at odds with previous publications showing that gasoline consumption decreases with density, confirms that density is indeed an important determinant of congestion, but also that we need urgently a better theoretical understanding of this phenomena. This incomplete view at the urban level leads thus to the idea that thinking about density by itself could be very misleading in congestion studies, and that it is probably more useful to focus on the spatial redistribution of activities and residences

Econometrics · Economic geography · Economics · Geography · Geometry · Odds · Physics · Political science · Politics · Population · Population density · Scaling · Sociology · Square root · Statistics · Traffic congestion · Transport engineering · Demography · Engineering · Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis · Mathematics · Transportation Planning and Optimization · Urban Transport and Accessibility