Christian von Ferber: Metropolis Public transport: simulations and empirical results
Abstract:
Our recent survey of public transport networks (PTNs) of selected 14 major cities of the world with PTN sizes ranging between 2000 and 46000 stations is presented together with an evolutionary model developed to capture the key features of these networks. The structure of PTNs is revealed in terms of a set of of neighbourhood relations both for the routes and the stations. The networks defined in this way display distinguishing properties due to the constraints of the embedding 2D geographical space and the structure of the cities. We propose and simulate an evolutionary growth model based on effectively interacting self-avoiding walks that reproduces the characteristic behavior of a PTN. Further analysis focuses on the resilience of these networks against failure or targeted attack y measuring the effects that defunct or removed nodes have on the properties of PTNs. Simulating different attack strategies we elaborate vulnerability criteria that lead to minimal strategies with high impact on these systems.
[C.v.Ferber, T.Holovatch, Yu.Holovatch, V.Palchykov Physica A380:585(2007)]