Gravity model in the Korean highway

Abstract

We investigate the traffic flows of the Korean highway system, which contains both public and private transportation information. We find that the traffic flow T(ij) between city i and j forms a gravity model, the metaphor of physical gravity as described in Newton's law of gravity, P(i)P(j)/r(ij)^2, where P(i) represents the population of city i and r(ij) the distance between cities i and j. It is also shown that the highway network has a heavy tail even though the road network is a rather uniform and homogeneous one. Compared to the highway network, air and public ground transportation establish inhomogeneous systems and have power-law behaviors.