Optimal Redesign of Dutch Road Network

Abstract

The Dutch national road network has been developed over centuries. In the past, roads were constructed according to contemporary spatial and transportation planning philosophies. Because the existing road network is a result of a long process of successive developments, the question can be asked whether this network is the most appropriate currently, especially considering the socioeconomic structure of the Netherlands. To answer this question, an optimization algorithm has been developed for designing road networks for a given spatial structure of cities, villages, and industrial activities. With this algorithm, the Dutch road network is redesigned on the basis of minimization of the travel and infrastructure costs and by taking into account the socioeconomic structure of the Netherlands. A comparison between the existing network and the new design shows that the redesigned Dutch national road network has significantly lower total costs than the existing road network. It is found that the construction of roads with more lanes on somewhat different locations leads to a reduction of the total travel time and the total vehicles kilometers traveled.

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