Extracting the Relationship and Evolutionary Rule Connecting Residents’ Travel Demand and Traffic Supply Using Multisource Data

Abstract

Urban rail transit (URT) systems are often regarded as the backbone of their respective city. The evolutionary features of URT systems have attracted much attention in recent years, but their evolution and their distinct function in contrast to other transit modes have seldom been investigated, especially quantitatively from the perspective of work–residence separation. Accordingly, we propose a framework for exploring the evolution of URT topological networks and demand-weighted networks, comparing the different impacts of all transit modes on work–residence separation. In this study, a URT passenger flow assignment model was formulated on the basis of travel cost function and an improved logit model was proposed that takes into account the heterogeneity of passengers. This model was used to generate a section load, which is regarded as a weight and able to reflect the residents’ demand for travel by URT. Then, the fractal dimensions for a non-weighted network and demand-weighted network are proposed and their indications for transportation explained. Finally, the Beijing Subway System (BSS) is used as a case study by employing fifty years of network data and ten years of smart card data. Using fractal approaches, the different characteristics illustrated by the two networks were investigated and the reasons behind the observed patterns explained. In addition, the spatial features of the rail network, in terms of fractal indictors, were compared with population distribution and urban mobility for all modes, extracted from phone data as a proxy. Thus, the relationship between the residents’ travel demand and traffic supply can be revealed to some extent. The main finding of this work is that demand must be taken into account when analyzing the fractal features of a transport network, lest the demand side be separated from the supply and important issues missed such as inconsistencies between demand and supply. Additionally, the role of rail transit in work–home imbalance can be investigated in the context of urban mobility for an entire city.