# The role of city geometry in determining the utility of a small urban light rail/tram system

## TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the significance of city geometry in urban transport planning, demonstrating how city shape influences the utility of light rail systems through new concepts and a case study of Galway City.

## Contribution

It introduces the concepts of Infeasible Regions and Infeasibility Factors, providing methods to calculate them and analyzing their impact on light rail utility based on city shape.

## Key findings

- Circular cities have different light rail utility profiles compared to rectangular cities.
- Rectangular cities show greater utility for single-line light rail systems.
- Methods for calculating Infeasible Regions are presented and applied.

## Abstract

In this work, we show the importance of considering a city's shape, as much as its population density figures, in urban transport planning. We consider in particular cities that are circular (the most common shape) compared to those that are rectangular: For the latter case we show greater utility for a single line light rail/tram system. We introduce the new concepts of Infeasible Regions and Infeasibility Factors, and show how to calculate them numerically and (in some cases) analytically. A particular case study is presented for Galway City.

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1902.02344