Evaluation Methods and Optimization Strategies for Low-Carbon-Oriented Urban Road Network Structures: A Case Study of Shanghai

Abstract

It is generally believed that the development of mass transportation is an effective and practical path by which to promote low-carbon development. As a form of infrastructure for the development of bus transits, urban road networks directly affect the planning and operation of a bus network. Existing studies have shown that urban road networks affect the layout effect of bus transit from aspects such as the topological network structure characteristics. Based on the existing foundation of research, this study aims to address evaluation methods for quantitative research on the topological structure of road networks, emphasizing that the topological structure characteristics are an important attribute affecting the morphological characteristics of the road network and also a key attribute affecting low-carbonization orientation. Furthermore, this study proposes an evaluation method for the low-carbon friendliness of urban road network structures and constructed a numerical comparison matrix. On this basis, the actual case of the central urban area of Shanghai was selected to conduct an empirical analysis of the evaluation of the low-carbon friendliness of the road network structure. Based on the street (township) as the regional unit scale, four types of evaluation results were obtained, corresponding to different levels of low-carbon friendliness. Based on the above analysis results, a low-carbon-oriented road network structure optimization strategy in Shanghai’s central urban area was further proposed to (1) develop countermeasures for low-carbon transportation development according to local conditions; (2) emphasize the key role of intersection forms in optimizing topology; (3) improve the connectivity level of important road sections; (4) encrypt the road network density in high-density development areas; (5) and combine this with other form of green transportation development to improve low-carbonization levels.