SPATIAL CONFIGURATION AND VEHICULAR MOVEMENT A nationwide correlational study

We provide the most comprehensive study to date on the correlation between network centrality measures and vehicular movement flows, using a model of the UK’s entire road network (2,031,971 nodes) and a very large dataset of vehicular movement counts (20,752 instances, evenly distributed over the UK’s territory). We describe the statistical associations between observed vehicular flows and the values of betweenness centrality of the road-network nodes where such flows were measured, the latter calculated using Euclidean and angular distance functions, across a number of increasing radii, from the local to the supra-regional scales. Relations to road capacity are also discussed in principal road networks where this is known. The geographical comprehensiveness of our model and the size of our movement sample allows us to state, with unprecedented statistical validity, the clear outperformance of angular distance over Euclidean distance, on what concerns the effect sizes of the studied correlations. We also demonstrate the existence of two clearly different regimes of association between movement and centrality, occurring on the background and foreground networks of cities, which may be interpreted as new evidence of the dual structure of urban form, proposed by space syntax. Proceedings of the 11th Space Syntax Symposium Miguel Serra and Bill Hillier Spatial Configuration and Vehicular Movement – A nationwide correlational study 2