Cohen, S. H. (2022). It’s the Journey, Not the Destination: Mixed Geometry in Transportation Networks. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.14418/wes01.2.347
Transportation networks in general, and road networks in particular, form the backbone of urban spaces. They support the transport of goods and people, and their efficient functionality is crucial to our economy, environment, and society. In this project, we examine transportation networks from a geometrical perspective. Specifically, we want to understand how attractive roads, such as highways, affect the organization of travel routes, or flows, on a road network. We find that highways create areas of negative curvature around them (in an otherwise "flat space"), which attracts traffic and can lead to congestion. Understanding how attractors in a road network affect the underlying geometry of flows can help to address challenges like accessibility, sustainability, efficiency, and more.