Road Networks and the Location of Facilities

Procedures for solving the location-allocation problem generally embrace only straight-line distances between the facilities and the population served. Where, however, the direct distance has a varying relationship with actual distance as, for example, in Highland Scotland or in a public transport system where direct links between certain towns are absent, it seems essential to consider real road distances. The Törnqvist algorithm for locating multiple facilities was applied to Southwest Argyll, first in standard form. A modified version of the program was then devised with a new searching procedure and a subroutine to accept a complete distance matrix. Comparison of the two procedures showed that the latter gave a more realistic delineation of hinterlands.