Spatial distribution complexities of traffic congestion and bottlenecks in different network topologies

Recently, urban traffic congestion has become a popular social problem. The generation and the propagation of congestion has close relation with the network topology, the traffic flow, etc. In this study, based on the traffic flow propagation method, we investigate the time and space distribution characteristics of the traffic congestion and bottlenecks in different network topologies (e.g., small world, random and regular network). The simulation results show that the random network is an optimal traffic structure, in which the traffic congestion is smaller than others. Moreover, the regular network is the worst topology which is prone to be congested. Additionally, we also prove the effects of network with community structure on the traffic system and congestion bottlenecks including its generation, propagation and time-space complexities. Results indicate that the strong community structure can improve the network performance and is effective to resist the propagation of the traffic congestion. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.