An accessibility-maximization approach to road network planning

Accessibility, is a key, factor in defining the quality, of life and potential for development of both cities and regions. This article presents a new accessibility maximization approach to inter-urban road network long-term planning. The approach is based on a nonlinear combinatorial optimization model. Two heuristics have been developed for solving the model, based on local search and,simulated annealing principles, respectively. The efficiency, of the heuristics was evaluated on a sample of test problems involving 10-, 20-, and 40-node networks. In the analysis both solution quality and computing effort were taken into account. The approach was used to analyze the ongoing transformation of the Portuguese main road network. The results obtained so far indicate that the model is a valuable decision-aid tool for inter-urban road network long-term planning.