01698328

Component

A set of flow and network-based metrics for measuring metropolitan area polycentricity using Journey-To-Work data are presented. Polycentricity is most commonly measured by location-based metrics (e.g. employment density). While such activity-density based metrics are good indicators of the “centricity" of a location, they fail to capture the idea that a center is a center based on which other locations it is connected to in terms of flows of people in and out of these locations: this is inherently a network idea rather than a location idea. The paper proposes three new measures of polycentricity: (a) a trip-based centricity measure, (b) a density-based centricity measure, and, (c) an accessibility-based centricity measure. Using these measures, polycentricity is computed and the resulting hierarchies of centers empirically measured to test whether the size distributions of centers follow a Zipf-like or a Chirstaller-like distribution. Demonstrating these measures on data from the Greater Sydney region, it is shown that these network-based measures, especially accessibility based centrality, characterize polycentricity more robustly than the traditional location-based measures and provide unexpected insights into the connections between landuse, transport, and urban structure.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE30 Standing Committee on Transportation Issues in Major Cities.

19-01399

English

17p

2019

Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References

Accessibility; Location; Metropolitan areas; Networks; Urban areas; Work trips

Central place theory; Spatial interaction

Sydney (Australia)

Planning and Forecasting; Transportation (General)

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2019 Paper #19-01399

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 7 2018 9:52AM