Urban population distribution with various road networks: a simulation approach

Models by urban economists explain the changing pattern of urban population distribution by the increase of income and improvements of transportation over time while ignoring the complexity and variety of urban forms. On the other hand, the gravity-based Garin - Lowry model, which generates urban population and service employment distributions for a given pattern of basic employment, has often been applied to empirical case studies. Few analytical results have been derived from it. In this paper, urban road networks are generalized into several cases. The Garin - Lowry model is used to simulate urban population distribution in various scenarios (for example, a sparser network in the suburbs, a network with a suburban beltway, a semicircular city, and a grid network). The results open an avenue for interesting empirical studies and have important implications for urban planning in general and transportation planning in particular.