With the acceleration of urbanization, urban road networks, as core components of urban transport and planning systems, face challenges in balancing sustainability, multimodal mobility, and functional efficiency. The concept of urban road network hierarchy, which involves street classification and prioritization, remains ill-defined in transport engineering management—raising critical questions about its nature as a planning tool or urban essence, its qualitative/quantitative attributes, and its organic or planned origins. However, existing research lacks comprehensive answers to these questions, limiting its guidance for sustainable transport futures.
Therefore, Stefanos TSIGDINOS, Alexandros NIKITAS, and Efthimios BAKOGIANNIS from the National Technical University of Athens (Greece) and the University of Huddersfield (UK) jointly conducted a research entitled “Contextualizing urban road network hierarchy and its role for sustainable transport futures: A systematic literature review using bibliometric analysis and content analysis tools”.
This study adopts a systematic literature review (SLR) approach, combining quantitative bibliometric analysis and qualitative content analysis to contextualize the urban road network hierarchy. A total of 42 articles from Scopus-indexed journals (published 2000–2022) were analyzed. The research results show that the urban road network hierarchy encompasses 16 sub-concepts and four main research trends: a) road morphology and structure, b) advanced algorithms for street classification, c) integrated street classification planning, and d) the social dimension of street classification. Recent literature indicates a clear shift from car-centric conventional hierarchy to alternative approaches prioritizing sustainable mobility. Additionally, the urban road network hierarchy is identified as a multifaceted yet under-researched “vehicle for change”—when utilized effectively, it offers opportunities to reimagine human-centric, multimodal urban road environments, with significant implications for integrated urban and transport planning.
The paper “Contextualizing urban road network hierarchy and its role for sustainable transport futures: A systematic literature review using bibliometric analysis and content analysis tools” authored by Stefanos TSIGDINOS, Alexandros NIKITAS, Efthimios BAKOGIANNIS. Full text of the open access paper: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42524-024-0300-x.