Quantitative assessment of urban road network hierarchy planning

The functional classification of urban road networks has a long history, and it is significant in modern transport and town planning. In order to closely monitor the implementation in practice, quantitative assessment of the performance of road functional classification is essential for transport authorities in road investment, maintenance, design and operation. However, studies in this field are few. In this context, this article proposes a method for quantitatively assessing urban road networks. The assessment framework consists of eight mathematically formulated indicators; the inputs required are GPS data, data from taxi-fare meters and GIS data (or digitalised road network maps). Continuing the discussion on a theoretical level, an experiment of the proposed method is conducted using a dataset collected in Beijing. The insightful findings concerning the performance of road functional classification in Beijing illustrate the usefulness of the method.