Characterizing Human Mobility Patterns in a Large Street Network

TL;DR

This study analyzes extensive human mobility data in a large street network, revealing that Levy flight patterns are primarily driven by the street layout rather than individual goals, with simulations supporting this finding.

Contribution

It demonstrates that street network structure largely explains human Levy flight mobility patterns, challenging the view that goal-directed behavior is the main factor.

Findings

Human mobility exhibits Levy flight patterns influenced by street layout.

Simulated random walkers replicate observed mobility patterns with high correlation.

Street network structure accounts for most of the variability in human movement.

Abstract

Previous studies demonstrated empirically that human mobility exhibits Levy flight behaviour. However, our knowledge of the mechanisms governing this Levy flight behaviour remains limited. Here we analyze over 72 000 people's moving trajectories, obtained from 50 taxicabs during a six-month period in a large street network, and illustrate that the human mobility pattern, or the Levy flight behaviour, is mainly attributed to the underlying street network. In other words, the goal-directed nature of human movement has little effect on the overall traffic distribution. We further simulate the mobility of a large number of random walkers, and find that (1) the simulated random walkers can reproduce the same human mobility pattern, and (2) the simulated mobility rate of the random walkers correlates pretty well (an R square up to 0.87) with the observed human mobility rate.