An assessment of the topological characteristics of Australian cities

Abstract

The analysis of the road network structure of cities can provide invaluable information to transport authorities in managing traffic congestion and improving safety and accessibility. A comparison of networkwide structural characteristics of different cities can be useful to benchmark and test different traffic management strategies. This paper presents the preliminary results from an ongoing research study on the assessment of topological characteristics of the 30 most populous cities in Australia. Key metrics such as node density, edge density, node degree, centrality measures, and clustering coefficient are evaluated. The results show a significant variation in each of the metrics across the cities. Apart from a few exceptions, typically, the bigger cities are observed to have shorter edges, higher node density, higher edge density, lower average centrality measures and lower clustering coefficient. © 2019 Australasian Transport Research Forum, ATRF 2019 - Proceedings. All rights reserved.