A transportation network model as a tool to solve urban planning location problems

The aim of this paper is to formulate a transportation network model conceived as a basis of possible tools to be used by administrators and planners to approach location problems in a urban context. The key element of this model is a static representation of the transportation network, made of oriented links and nodes, connecting the facilities located in a prespecified urban area. Such a representation is based on an analogy of electric nature, thus allowing to exploit conventional electric networks solvers to determine the relevant features of the traffic flow in each link of the transportation network. The facility quality level is also taken into account in a quantitative fashion. Relying on the proposed model, different related results, such as the minimum path matrix and the induced traffic in each link of the network can be retrieved.