Empirical analysis and modeling of the allometric scaling of urban freight systems

Journal article (2023)

Authors

Xu Jie Lin Beijing Jiaotong University
Erjian Liu Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos IFISC (CSIC-UIB), Beijing Jiaotong University
Y. Yang Beijing Jiaotong University, Transport and Planning - CEG
Xiang Yu Jia Beijing Jiaotong University
Xiao Yong Yan Beijing Jiaotong University
Research Group
Transport and Planning (CEG) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2023 Xu Jie Lin, Er Jian Liu, Y. Yang, Xiang Yu Jia, Xiao Yong Yan
DOI
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https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/ace078
More Info
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Published Date

2023

Language

English

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Faculty

Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Department

Transport and Planning

Research Group

Transport and Planning

Abstract

Heavy trucks which undertake the majority of freight volume play an important role in urban freight systems. By analyzing heavy truck trip data, we find a superlinear scaling relationship for heavy truck trips and a sublinear scaling relationship for heavy truck numbers relative to urban population size. Although these allometric scaling relationships that widely appear in nature and social systems have been explained by many models, a simple model that can cover a wide range of scaling exponents in these systems is still lacking. Here, we develop a partially mixing city operation model by quantifying the mixability of the urban population to explain why the superlinear and sublinear scaling exponents are in the range of 1 and . This simple model not only helps us understand the mechanism of allometric scaling of urban freight systems, but also provides a new framework for other superlinear and sublinear scaling relationships in cities.