From Axial to Road-Centre Lines: A New Representation for Space Syntax and a New Model of Route Choice for Transport Network Analysis

Abstract

Axial analysis is one of the fundamental components of space syntax. The space syntax community has suggested that it picks up qualities of configurational relationships between spaces not illuminated by other representations. However, critics have questioned the absolute necessity of axial lines to space syntax, as well as the exact definition of axial lines. Why not another representation? In particular, why not road-centre lines, which are easily available in many countries for use within geographical information systems?Here we propose that a recently introduced method of analysis, angular segment analysis, can marry axial and road-centre line representations, and in doing so reflect a cognitive model of how route choice decisions may be made. We show that angular segment analysis can be applied generally to road-centre line segments or axial segments, through a simple length-weighted normalisation procedure that makes values between the two maps comparable. We make comparative quantitative assessments for a real urban system, not just investigating angular analysis between axial and road-centre line networks, but also including more intuitive measures based on block-distances between locations.We show that the new angular segment analysis algorithm produces better correlation with observed vehicular flow than both standard axial analysis and block-distance measures. The results imply that there is no reason why space syntax inspired measures cannot be combined with transportation network analysis representations in order to create a new, cognitively coherent, model of movement in the city.

Urban Integrity: The City of Nicosia, Turkish Republic Of Northern Cyprus

“…Ayrıca mekan dizimi analizlerinde araç ulaşımı hususunda yapılacak analizlerde tutarlı sonuçlar vermektedir. 48 Aksiyel haritalar ise yaya hareketleriyle iyi derecede korele olmaktadır. 49 Mekan dizimi analizleri ulaşım ağı planlamasında geleneksel yöntemlere kıyasla daha hızlı ve daha az maliyetlidir.…”

Apply Space Syntax to Design a TOD land Use Plan

“…Also, argued that space-related centrality could be used to better predict human movement behaviors than the point-to-point connection. In other words, the center-line street network was better than traditional axial graphs in predicting moving behaviors [8]. Again, Nenci (2007) pointed out that, to present different systems, space syntax could be compared against transportation models [9].…”

“…the center-line street network is better than a traditional axial graph in predicting move behaviors. Evidently [13], Space Syntax not only takes into consideration the entire urban street network and the correlation of specific roads against all other roads, but also accommodates people's experience of road selection. In other words, Space Syntax transforms the past physical-distance accessibility studies into the research foundation based on the topological accessibility of road networks.…”

“…Dominated by a number of recurring themes, these provide both a valuable context and potent insights to support our own perspective. Briefly these include: theories of urbanization; the political economy of cities and the form and consumption of space; demographic, social and spatial reconfiguration under conditions of globalization and structural adjustment; the dynamics of urban economies and the livelihoods of the mass of low income dwellers; urban poverty and environmental degradation; the scope of policy and intervention to manage rapid informal urbanization [13], [14]. Sustainability features strongly in the urbanization literature, but is preoccupied with macro scale processes, issues of governance and institutional capacity and the political economy of urban environmental sustainability [15]- [17].…”

A Study on the Applying Concept of Metric Weighting to Space Syntax

“…The analysis results obtained using the ASA methodology indicated high predictive power for human-movement patterns (Turner, 2007). As a result, the researchers also attempted to introduce the concept of metric weighting to the analysis of a segmented axial map, but unlike the angular weighting approach, this had unsatisfactory results and led to the tentative conclusion that the distance is meaningless as a weighting.…”