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Scientific Papers

Vol. 19 No. 34 (2017): Journal 34

Spatial configuration of Cartago city and its relashionship with traffic volumes

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15517/jbq0pr36
Submitted
November 13, 2025
Published
2025-11-13

Abstract

Spatial syntax studies the configuration of spatial elements and the relationships between them. For a city, these elements are the streets that form its road network. Spatial syntax seeks to stablish relationships between this spatial composition and urban characteristics such as the movement of people and vehicles, the land value, and the location commercial activities. This study seeks to determine the correlation between this configuration and the vehicular volume of the road network in the city of Cartago, Costa Rica. To obtain this correlation, a unit segment analysis was performed, establishing the priority of the roads at each intersection and gathering field information of the network. Subsequently, several statistical models were considered to find the best fit of the data. The highest correlation is achieved using an exponential multivariate model. Including a categorical variable for North-South streets with unidirectional flow considerably improves the fit of the model. On the other hand, considering only one variable leads to an overestimation of traffic volume for these cases. It is concluded that spatial syntax analysis is a fast and economical method that can provide a guide to execute more detailed studies on the current network and early stages of future projects.

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