Landscape geometry-based percolation of traffic in several populous cities around the world

Abstract

In this study, we propose an alternative concept for describing the average traffic congestion in several populous cities around the world, namely landscape percolation. The ratio of the residential area size to road width is a fundamental parameter that controls the traffic congestion. We have compared the model with data extracted from several populous cities around the world (directly from Google Earth images) and demonstrated very consistent results. The criterion for a city landscape that makes a city is considered as congested or less congested has been identified. The model also explains remarkably well the consistency of the measured data with various reports on congestion levels (such as the recognized Tomtom congestion level or Numbeo traffic index) of some populous cities around the world. These findings may help in designing new cities or redesigning the infrastructure of congested cities, for example, for deciding what the maximum size of the residential area is and how width the roads are. This work also shows the similarity of the problem in conducting composite (electric current flow), brine transport between icebergs (fluid flow), and traffic (vehicle flow).