Network Centrality of Metro Systems
Whilst being hailed as the remedy to the world’s ills, cities will need to adapt in the 21st century. In particular, the role of public transport is likely to increase significantly, and new methods and technics to better plan transit systems are in dire need. This paper examines one fundamental asp...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Public Library of Science
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77611 |
| _version_ | 1811088205995311104 |
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| author | Derrible, Sybil |
| author2 | Singapore-MIT Alliance in Research and Technology (SMART) |
| author_facet | Singapore-MIT Alliance in Research and Technology (SMART) Derrible, Sybil |
| author_sort | Derrible, Sybil |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Whilst being hailed as the remedy to the world’s ills, cities will need to adapt in the 21st century. In particular, the role of public transport is likely to increase significantly, and new methods and technics to better plan transit systems are in dire need. This paper examines one fundamental aspect of transit: network centrality. By applying the notion of betweenness centrality to 28 worldwide metro systems, the main goal of this paper is to study the emergence of global trends in the evolution of centrality with network size and examine several individual systems in more detail. Betweenness was notably found to consistently become more evenly distributed with size (i.e. no “winner takes all”) unlike other complex network properties. Two distinct regimes were also observed that are representative of their structure. Moreover, the share of betweenness was found to decrease in a power law with size (with exponent 1 for the average node), but the share of most central nodes decreases much slower than least central nodes (0.87 vs. 2.48). Finally the betweenness of individual stations in several systems were examined, which can be useful to locate stations where passengers can be redistributed to relieve pressure from overcrowded stations. Overall, this study offers significant insights that can help planners in their task to design the systems of tomorrow, and similar undertakings can easily be imagined to other urban infrastructure systems (e.g., electricity grid, water/wastewater system, etc.) to develop more sustainable cities. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:57:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/77611 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:57:37Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/776112024-07-19T19:59:53Z Network Centrality of Metro Systems Derrible, Sybil Singapore-MIT Alliance in Research and Technology (SMART) Derrible, Sybil Whilst being hailed as the remedy to the world’s ills, cities will need to adapt in the 21st century. In particular, the role of public transport is likely to increase significantly, and new methods and technics to better plan transit systems are in dire need. This paper examines one fundamental aspect of transit: network centrality. By applying the notion of betweenness centrality to 28 worldwide metro systems, the main goal of this paper is to study the emergence of global trends in the evolution of centrality with network size and examine several individual systems in more detail. Betweenness was notably found to consistently become more evenly distributed with size (i.e. no “winner takes all”) unlike other complex network properties. Two distinct regimes were also observed that are representative of their structure. Moreover, the share of betweenness was found to decrease in a power law with size (with exponent 1 for the average node), but the share of most central nodes decreases much slower than least central nodes (0.87 vs. 2.48). Finally the betweenness of individual stations in several systems were examined, which can be useful to locate stations where passengers can be redistributed to relieve pressure from overcrowded stations. Overall, this study offers significant insights that can help planners in their task to design the systems of tomorrow, and similar undertakings can easily be imagined to other urban infrastructure systems (e.g., electricity grid, water/wastewater system, etc.) to develop more sustainable cities. 2013-03-11T13:35:36Z 2013-03-11T13:35:36Z 2012-07 2012-03 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1932-6203 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77611 Derrible, Sybil. “Network Centrality of Metro Systems.” Ed. Petter Holme. PLoS ONE 7.7 (2012): e40575. en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0040575 PLoS ONE Creative Commons Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ application/pdf Public Library of Science PLoS |
| spellingShingle | Derrible, Sybil Network Centrality of Metro Systems |
| title | Network Centrality of Metro Systems |
| title_full | Network Centrality of Metro Systems |
| title_fullStr | Network Centrality of Metro Systems |
| title_full_unstemmed | Network Centrality of Metro Systems |
| title_short | Network Centrality of Metro Systems |
| title_sort | network centrality of metro systems |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77611 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT derriblesybil networkcentralityofmetrosystems |