Dynamic isochrones development and analysis for the time-effective performances evaluation of road networks

Abstract

Measuring and Assessing the time-effective performances of complex road networks are fundamental works for urban transportation planning and management. To provide a profound and complete understanding of such performances, developing methods with high spatial visualization abilities becomes a significant research topic. Empowered by the evolution of online map services, isochrones are expected to be an effective way to depict the real-time dynamic changes of time-effective performances in an intuitive and accurate manner, as their shapes and associated indicators change with the attributes of road networks. This paper aims to explore the effectiveness of isochrones and tailed indicators in capturing the time-effective performances of monocentric road networks. Firstly, we define two categories of isochrone-related indicators (i.e., time-effective intensity indicators and time-effective equilibrium indicators) and propose a batch-processing framework to generate monocentric isochrones with multiple indicator values of their own characteristics and net-work-related attributes. These preliminary works allow us to examine the temporal distribution of isochrone characteristic indicators and intrinsic connections between these indicators and network attributes under different conditions via case studies in Guangzhou and Foshan, China. Through experiments, we found that the time-effective intensity indicator correlates significantly with road network attributes, whereas the applicability of time-effective equilibrium indicators varies for different road networks. This study confirms the capability of the proposed indicators for describing the variation of time-effective performances of the road network, and thus provides theoretical support for the implementation of isochrones and corresponding indicators in urban transportation planning and measurement.