Transport network

A transport network, or transportation network is a realisation of a spatial network, describing a structure which permits either vehicular movement or flow of some commodity.Examples include but are not limited to road networks, railways, air routes, pipelines, aqueducts, and power lines. A transport network, or transportation network is a realisation of a spatial network, describing a structure which permits either vehicular movement or flow of some commodity.Examples include but are not limited to road networks, railways, air routes, pipelines, aqueducts, and power lines. Transport network analysis is used to determine the flow of vehicles (or people) through a transport network, typically using mathematical graph theory. It may combine different modes of transport, for example, walking and car, to model multi-modal journeys. Transport network analysis falls within the field of transport engineering. Traffic has been studied extensively using statistical physics methods. Recently a real transport network of Beijing was studied using network approach and percolation theory. The research showed that one can characterize the quality of traffic in a city at each time in the day using percolation threshold, see Fig. 1.