CASA Working Paper 222

Identifying and Characterising Active Travel Corridors for London in Response to COVID-19 Using Shortest Path and Streetspace Analysis

Covid-19 related restrictions are forcing public transport services to operate with less capacity. In response, trips are being channelled to walking and cycling. We use shortest-path analysis to identify all street-level connections between all rail and underground stations in inner London. We are able to identify the critical pathways which show a long tail distribution and a radial/cellular spatial pattern. We visually compare this network with the existing cycling network, and explore two scenarios of street interventions in 8 critical pathways using streetspace cross-section analysis. The methods presented here can offer valuable analytical capacity for developing new cycling and walking schemes and designing place-based streets that are more appropriate to control virus propagation.

Keywords: Shortest-path, Streetspace, Critical pathways

Authors: Nicolas Palominos, Duncan A Smith

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