City Research Online

Abstract

Urban travel geometry is a generalization of patterns of movement in cities and regions where route configuration and prevailing traffic speeds constrain or direct movement in distinctive and repeatable patterns. In this paper we use these properties to construct time surfaces on which distance equates to the time of travel in the urban plane. Such surfaces can be two- or three-dimensional and are useful in the study of urban structure, locational analysis, transport planning and traffic management. A particular niche addressed in this paper is non-conformal time surface transformations in which speed or the cost of travel is constrained according to co-ordinate directions. It is argued that such models may be more suited to gridded and orbital-radial cities than previously used conformal transformations. After explaining the rationale behind the approach, a mathematical basis is developed and several calibrated examples are provided based on regions in the UK. The paper concludes with some examples of potential applications, and an annex provides a detailed mathematical framework.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in GeoJournal. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:GEJO.0000026689.48422.96.
Publisher Keywords:	isochrones, locational analysis, map transformations, time surfaces, urban geometry
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications Q Science > QA Mathematics
Departments:	Bayes Business School > Actuarial Science & Insurance
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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