Road Networks and Vehicle Routing

Road networks are a feature of the landscape that is rife with potential for spatial analysis, and one of the more common problems involving these networks is the challenge of creating an appropriate vehicle route.  The time it takes a vehicle to get from point A to B varies according to a plethora of factors, including speed limit, road size, traffic patterns, etc., and the route chosen for the vehicle may need to take any number of these factors into consideration.

The above route maps are similar to one another, but the two do actually vary slightly.  The map on the left is identical to the one on the right, except that its route was created using rules involving traffic data, which changed the route, and actually added about an hour onto its travel time.  This kind of route optimization is invaluable to those who plan these kinds of routes- the more factors one can take into account when creating something like this, generally the better.