Resumen de Urban mobility network design: functional analysis and modeling for a concentric city
Cities face problems influencing urban mobility, such as traffic growth, congestion, explosive population growth, urban sprawl. According to the literature, traffic, congestion, and urban development have an interrelationship with each other; traffic is a function of the system of activities attracting travel; activities define urban development and, its planning determines the traffic level and congestion. Thus, urban development requires a simultaneous interaction of its urban structure and transportation systems, contributing to urban mobility efficiency.
The research proposes how to adapt infrastructure and land uses to meet the needs for traveling in a city. The above question promotes a balanced design between transportation networks, population distribution, land use, and infrastructure. The main objective is to develop a macroscopic method to identify infrastructure requirements reaching an appropriate service level for mobility and transportation.
The methodology bases its formulation on analytical models to deduce critical components of a structural network for a concentric city, considering many dispersed cities set to this urban scheme. These key components must ensure the critical conditions of public and private transportation infrastructure. The Continuous Approximation (CA) method solves the problem based on local cost by using variables defined as densities.
The dissertation focuses its research on urban design based on functionality, the role of heterogeneous distributed demand, and design effects on urban structure. The application of the model and obtained results focus on three types of analyzes. First, theoretical case analysis, considering both public and private transportation (multi-subcenter cities reduce total costs between 2.6 and 11.6%). Second, the analysis of a planning measure (subcenters save 3.5% of total costs) and new transportation technology (autonomous vehicles could neutralize the reduction in travel costs and times). Third, the model application to a current city such as Santiago of Chile (the system optimization advises an increment in subway services).
Finally, the model, its implementation, analysis, and results prove that it is a promising contribution to planning science. In practice, its application can provide robust approaches to elaborate spatial planning instruments.
Keywords: Urban mobility; Network design; Public Transportation; Private Transportation; Continuous approximation; Concentric city; Urban subcenters; Autonomous vehicles; Santiago, Chile.
