The backbone of urban street networks: Degree distribution and connectivity characteristics

Abstract

This article explores the backbone of urban street networks to reflect the characteristics of the overall network. The model representing the connection of urban road elements based on traffic properties is constructed and then applied to the traffic network in Xiamen, China. The backbone of urban street networks comprises road elements whose hierarchical measure is greater than 1 and named roads in this context. And the difference between the overall road network and the backbone is compared from the perspective of degree distribution and connection characteristics. The results reveal that the backbone (hierarchical measure > 1) of the urban street network is consistent with the overall road network. The skeleton road network in this article saves the amount of work for road elements by 17.75%, and the intersection elements by 4.21%. Our conclusions will be beneficial to assess the current network performance more efficiently and improve existing road network systems as well as discovering the complicated relationship between network structure and dynamic behaviors.