Abstract:

High-speed traffic networks, as one of the most important methods of regional linkage, play a critical role in promoting the construction of social and economic spatial structure. Expressway network toll collection provides effective data support for regional traffic flow research, from the perspective of expressway network. The paper, supported by O-D data from toll stations throughout the Jiangsu expressway network during 2014, takes Jiangsu province as an example to conduct research on the characteristics and influencing factors of regional traffic flow. The following results can be obtained: (1) The traffic flow in Jiangsu is quite unbalanced, and the core codes (toll stations and counties) are mainly located in southern Jiangsu, which show a radioactive structure with core codes as the center. (2) The characteristics of distance decay are generally shown in the vehicle flow. The longer the space distance is, the more obvious the decay regularity of distance becomes. The relationship between the vehicle flow and distance is in accord with power law distribution. (3) Permanent residents, economic distribution and expressway mileage can effectively explain regional traffic flow distribution. Specifically, economic development has the greatest influence on the traffic flow in northern Jiangsu; population has local advantages on traffic flow in southern Jiangsu; expressway mileage has a relatively weak negative influence on the traffic flow in southern Jiangsu.

Key words: traffic flow, influencing factors, expressway network, geographically weighted regression, Jiangsu province