Transpn Res. Vol. 4, pp. 235-242. Pergamon Press 1970.

Printed in Great Britain

ROUTING IN A CIRCULAR CITY WITH TWO RING ROADS
DENNIS E. BLUMENFELD
Traffic Studies Group, University College London
and
GEORGE H. WErsst
Imperial College, London
(Received 3 October 1969)
1. INTRODUCTION
IN A recent paper Wardrop has discussed routing systems for a circular city in which the
cost of transport is a function of position in the city (Wardrop, 1968). This work follows
ideas apparently first introduced by Beckmann (1952). Such position-dependent costs
might arise due to differential land costs, crowding towards the city center, and other
factors which produce greater demand for land in the city center than towards the fringes.
Lam and Newell (1967) have analyzed flow-dependent routing in a circular city, in which
roads are restricted to be either radial or circular. Although this problem is of great
interest, the Lam-Newell formulation leads to some quite difficult mathematics. In spite
of this the authors were able to establish several general routing principles for their
particular model. In the present paper we shall consider the Wardrop model in which the
cost is measured in terms of travel time. However, we adopt the restriction that roads can
be either radial or circular, rather than arbitrary as is the case in Wardrops work. In
particular we shall examine the situation in which a circumferential road exists at the
boundary of the city, and it is proposed to build a second ring road within the city proper.
This problem is suggested by the proposed construction of the London motorway box.
The mathematical technique of conformal mapping is not available to us as it was to
Wardrop, since we do not assume arbitrary highways within the city, but rather restrict
ourselves, as did Lam and Newell, to radial and ring routing.
There is a large literature on routing in idealized cities, and in particular on routing in
circular cities (Smeed, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1968; Haight, 1964; Holroyd, 1966; Lam and
Newell, 1967; Tan, 1966 and others). Wardrops model differs from all of these in that it
introduces the idea of speed in the city dependent on position. Some of the models referred
to above allow for speeds which differ for certain specified highways, but otherwise the city
is treated as a homogeneous entity. Lam and Newell allow speed as a function of traffic
density, but not of situation within the city.
The analysis to be presented is based on the following assumptions:
1. The city proper is circular, of radius R.
2. All origins lie outside the city proper, i.e. at a distance from the center greater than R.
Furthermore, for a given destination the points of entrance to the city will be
uniformly distributed over an arc of 180 defined by a line drawn from the center
t Permanent address: National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. 20014, U.S.A.
235
236 DENNIS E. BLUMENFELD and GEORGE H. WEISS
of the city to the destination, and the perpendicular to that line through the center.
This is illustrated in Fig. 1. The probability that a given origin is in an arc (0, 0 + dt?)
is assumed to be de/n.
Destination
points
FIG. 1. Schematic diagram of points of entrance to the city generated by a single destination.
3. Destinations within the city have angular symmetry, i.e. depend only onradius r.
We define a dimensionless density of destinations g(r), normalized so that
R
s
&)dp = R2/2
0
U-1)
4. Origins and destinations are uncorrelated except for the limitation of entry points
to the 180 arc mentioned in assumption 2 above.
5. The average speed at any point, v(r), is a function of radius alone and not of direction
or angle, and is an increasing differentiable function of r.
6. In what follows we assume that drivers choose their route in such a way as to
minimize travel time.
The second assumption in this list is chosen for mathematical convenience. The
analysis can be carried out in the absence of such an assumption, but the resulting calcula-
tions become quite involved. Since the model is otherwise greatly idealized, we did not
feel that the results justified a complicated analysis. Furthermore, we assume that some
localization of the type implied by assumption 2 would take place naturally. The same
comments hold concerning the fourth in the list of assumptions.
2. INFINITE NETWORK
In this section we consider a highly idealized model in which there is both an infinite
number of ring roads and an infinite number of radial roads available. The results of the
analysis will be used primarily as a basis of comparison.
It will be assumed in what follows that any portion of a journey will be either by a
radial or by a ring route; no other kind of routing will be considered. In order to determine
the routing that is a consequence of each driver minimizing travel time, let us consider an
infinitesimal portion of a journey, as illustrated in Fig. 2, in which a driver seeks to go from
(r+ Ar, 6+A0) to a point (r, 0). It will be assumed that Ar and A0 are small enough so that
the only feasible journeys are those shown in Fig. 2. The three possibilities that must be
Routing in a circular city with two ring roads 237
considered separately are r <r, <r+Ar, ro<r and r,,>r+ Ar. Let us consider the first of
these. The travel time is easily seen to be
AT=
s
~+a?* + A Br,
r 44 dro)
Since the integral is independent of r,, only the function
h(r,) = r0i4r0)
(2-l)
(2.2)
requires analysis. We will concern ourselves only with models for which lim u(r) = 0, =
r--f*
constant # 0, so that h(r,,) is a function that ultimately increases monotonically. It is
r,,B+AB
ro*e+:r ro,o+ABz rtA-y??b
,
r,,e
ial (bl
(cl
FIG. 2. Possible journey paths between points a short distance apart for an infinite number of ring roads.
possible to distinguish several cases according to whether h(r) is nondecreasing for all r, or
whether there is some range over which h(r) decreases. We will consider only the case of
increasing h(r). In this case it is evident that minimizing AT subject to r <r,, <r +Ar requires
that we choose r, = r. It now follows by an inductive argument that if we exclude the
possibilities r,, <r and r,, >r +Ar between any infinitesimal points of a journey the optimal
route between points located at radii r, and r,>r, will consist of a single inward journey
along a radius followed by a journey along the arc at radius rl.
We now consider the remaining possibilities r,, >r +Ar and r,, <r. It is evident that if
h(r,) increases then the journey time
has a positive derivative
- = 2+A&(r,)>O
dAT+
dr, 4r0)
so that r. = r +Ar is always better than r,, >r +Ar. When r,, -c r we have
so that
(2.3)
(2.5)
(2.6)
For this case, whenever AC9< 2, the indicated derivative is negative [since u(r,,)>O] hence
excluding the possibility r, <r so that the restriction on angle implies that the optimal route
will always be that shown in Fig. 3.
20
238 DENNIS E. BLUMENFELD and GEORGE H. WEISS
FIG. 3. Optimal path for a city with an infinite number of ring roads.
3. TWO RING ROADS
In this section we will analyze a system in which there are exactly two ring roads, one
at radius R, on the periphery, and one at R,< R.
For this model two subcases must be considered depending on whether the radius of the
destination, p, is greater or less than R,. Let us first analyze the case p> R,. We will
assume that the only two routes that need to be considered are those shown in Fig. 4, i.e.
Destination
Destination
(a)
(b)
FIG. 4. Possible paths for a journey to a point at radius p with R >p >R, .
we assume that the possibility of radial routing can be ignored. Then the times taken on
the outer and inner routes respectively are
780, P) =
s
R dr
- + Oh(R)
p v(r)
We,,) = j;g+ j ~, ~+~W
The inner route will be preferred when K(O, p) < 7(0, p), or
0 3 e,(p)
where
2
() = h(R) - h( R,)
p dr
s-
Ro v(r)
When O< t?,(p) the outer ring route will be preferred.
(3.1)
(3.2)
(3.3)
Routing in a circular city with two ring roads 239
When pc R, we can again compare two routes, the analogues of the routes shown in
Fig. 4. For these routes
T,(k P) =
R dr
s
- + L%(R)
p u(r)
7x4 p) =
s
R dr
- + Oh(R,)
p 44
(3.4)
But by the monotonicity of h(r) it is easily seen that T,,(B, p) 3 T,(B, p) so that the inner ring
route is always preferred when p -c R,.
The problem of greatest interest in the two ring road case involves the choice of an
optimal R,. This requires us to consider the entire distribution of destinations as described
by the function g(p). If T(B, p) is the time to get from 8 = 0, r = R to (0, p) then the average
journey time is
(3.5)
For T(B, p) we shall substitute the values calculated from the requirement of minimum
journey time, and thereby find T as a function of R,. It is of interest to see what values of R,
are implied by our model, but of greater interest to determine how sensitive T(R,) is to
variations in the choice of R,. For our detailed numerical calculations three choices of
destination distribution g(r) were made, consistent with the normalization condition of
equation (1.1). These were
g,(r) = 1
g,(r) = R/W)
gdr) =
k2 R2
2[1 -e-R(l +kR)] e-kr
The variation of speed with position was taken to be
v(r) =
vo+v,oir
l+ar
(3.6)
(3.7)
with mean speed o. at the city center and v, at distances infinitely removed from the city
center. This form of v(r) has the advantage that all of the succeeding integrations can be
carried out in closed form, and has the property of increasing monotonically from u. to its
value at the circumference. The parameter U, is a fictitious speed which leads to a con-
venient representation for v(r). The parameter 01 can be expressed in terms of the actual
mean speed at the city periphery as
(3.8)
Calculations have been made for aR = 10.
We have calculated the function
f(Ro) = &
2 0
(3.9)
where the subscript refers to the number of ring roads in the system, for the various g(r)
given in (3.6). Some typical curves of f(Ro) are shown in Fig. 5 for a = z)~/u, = 0.2. As
might be expected on intuitive considerations, the only case in which f(Ro) is sensitive to
variation in R, is that arising for g,(R), i.e. the case in which destinations are heavily
240 DENNIS E. BLUMENFELD and GEORGE H. WEISS
concentrated at the city center. It is interesting to notice that even for the particular g&r)
chosen for the curve of Fig. 5, the range of RJ R that allowsf(R,,) to be greater than or
equal to 0.9 max Rof(RO) is (0*05,0.56). For the other forms of g(r) the comparable ranges are
even larger, suggesting that quite generally one does not need a very accurate calculation
0.6
0 02 O-5 0.6 0.6 1.0
FIG. 5. Typical curves of f(R,) = T,/T,(R,,) as a function of RJ R, for various destination distributions.
of the optimal R,. The behaviour off(R,) as exhibited in Fig. 5 for particular parameter
values over a wide range of parameter values. We have also examined the sensitivity of
optimal R,/R and f(R,) as a function of the speed ratio a = v,,/u~. Typical results are
shown in Fig. 6 for f(R,,) as a function of a. These curves are remarkably insensitive to
variation in the speed ratio. Likewise the variation in the optimal RJ R is insensitive to
the speed ratio. For example, the optimal R,/R range, for gl(r) and a = 0.1 to a = O-9,
from 0.561 to 0.533, for g,(r) from 0.375 to 0.327 and for g3(r) and k/ a = 0.8, from O-250
to O-216. If one simply sets R, = R/2 the resultant increase in mean travel time is less than
10 per cent of the optimal for all of the cases calculated, which is of insignificance in view
of the simplicity of the model. In every case the optimal R, decreases monotonically as a
increases. All of these results have been shown to hold for the form of u(r) given in equation
(3.7), but we expect that the same insensitivity will apply for other forms of u(r) provided
that the derivative of v(r) is not too sharp.
Routing in a circular city with two ring roads 241
0.90
maxfIR,)
RO
FIG. 6. Typical
0.85
0.80
~g$r) (5 =0.8)
1 g,(r)
g,(r)
0
curves of max J&&) as a function of a = v&,, for various destination distributions.
0.9
04
I-
i-
)9,(r)
0.7
0.6 ,-
0
I I I I I
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
a=
VO
/Y,
FIG. 7. Curves of T,/TI as a function of a, measuring the benefit achieved by introducing a second
ring road.
242 DENNIS E. BLUMENFELD and GEORGE H. WEISS
One measure of the benefit of adding a second ring road is the reduction in average
travel time. In Fig. 7 we have plotted curves of T2T,lTr as a function of u,,/v,, that is, the
ratio of average travel time (for optimal R,,) with two ring roads to the average travel time
for a single circumferential ring road. The curves are markedly insensitive to variations in
%I&o.
Of course, there is much more to be said about the addition of the second ring road
in terms of the relief of congestion on minor traffic arteries but we have not investigated this
problem.
Many generalizations of the model just analyzed suggest themselves for study. Of these
some of the more interesting are the effects of correlation between origin and destinations,
the effects of a finite number, rather than an infinite number of radial roads, the effects of
anisotropic origin and destination distributions, and the redistribution of traffic loads when
various measures like the addition of ring roads are put into practice. This last problem
has been considered to a certain extent in the work of Lam and Newell, but the study of a
large number of cases would be required in order to derive any general conclusions from
their calculations.
REFERENCES
BECKMANN M. J. (1952). A continuous model of transportation. Econometrica 20, 643-646.
HAIGHT F. A. (1964). Some probability distributions associated with commuter travel in a homogeneous
circular city. Ops Res. 12, 964-915.
HOLROYD E. M. (1966). Theoretical average journey lengths in circular towns with various routing
systems. Ministry of Transport RRL Report No. 43, Crowthorne, England.
LAM T. N. and NEWELL G. F. (1967). Flow dependent traffic assignment of a circular city. Transpn
Sci. 1, 318-361.
SMEED R. J. (1961). The Tra#ic Problem in Towns, pp. l-59. Manchester Statistical Society. Manchester,
England.
SMEED R. J. (1963). The road space required for traffic in towns. Town Planning Rev. 33, 279-292.
SMEED R. J. (1965). A theoretical model of commuter traffic in towns. J. Inst. math. Applic. 1, 208-225.
SMEED R. J. (1968). Traffic studies and urban congestion. J. Transpt Econ. Pal. 2, l-38.
TAN T. (1966). Road networks in an expanding circular city. Ops Res. 14, 607-613.
WARDROP J. G. (1969). Minimum-cost paths in urban areas. Beitriige zar Theorie des Verkehrsflusses.
Referate anlasslich des IV Internationalen Symposiums tiber die Theorie Verkehrsflusses in
Karlsruhe im Juni 1968. Strassenbau und Strassenverkehrstechnik Heft 86. Bundesminister fur
Verkehr, Bonn.