Road network

This page describes how the road network in ANYWAYS is structured and how its properties affect routing and traffic assignment.

OpenStreetMap data model

ANYWAYS uses OpenStreetMap (OSM) as the underlying source for its road network.

The road network in ANYWAYS follows the same core data model and tagging concepts as OpenStreetMap, including:

Roads represented as ways
Connectivity defined at intersections
Properties such as direction, access, and speed derived from OSM tags

This means that:

Road segment properties in ANYWAYS correspond closely to OSM tags
Familiar OSM concepts (e.g. one-way streets, access restrictions, speed limits) behave as expected
Edits in ANYWAYS modify the network state derived from OSM data

Not all OSM tags are necessarily used for routing or simulation, and some tags may be interpreted or simplified to support traffic assignment.

Road segments

The road network consists of road segments connected at intersections.

Each road segment represents a directed or bidirectional section of road and has a set of properties that influence:

Whether the segment can be used
Which vehicles can use it
How costly it is to traverse

Road segments are the fundamental units used by the route planner.

Direction

Direction defines the allowed travel direction on a road segment.

Supported configurations:

Two-way: travel is allowed in both directions
One-way: travel is allowed in a single direction

Direction is based on OSM direction tags and affects:

Route availability
Connectivity of the network
Assignment results in datasets

If a road segment is one-way, travel in the opposite direction is not permitted.

Access restrictions

Access restrictions define which vehicle types or transport modes are allowed to use a road segment.

Access rules are derived from OSM access-related tags and can:

Allow or prohibit specific modes (e.g. car, bicycle, truck)
Override default access based on road type

Access restrictions are interpreted by vehicle profiles during routing.

If a vehicle profile does not have access to a road segment, that segment will not be used when calculating routes for that profile.

Maximum speed

The maximum speed defines the upper bound on travel speed for a road segment.

Maximum speed values are derived from OSM speed-related tags where available.

Maximum speed is used by:

Vehicle profiles that optimize for travel time
The route planner when calculating fastest routes

If no explicit maximum speed is set, a default value based on road type may be used.

Changing the maximum speed affects:

Travel time estimates
Route choice
Dataset assignment results

Road type

Road type classifies road segments into categories (e.g. motorway, primary road, residential street).

Road type is based on OSM highway classifications and may influence:

Default speed limits
Default access rules
Routing preferences in vehicle profiles

Road type does not by itself prohibit access unless combined with access restrictions or vehicle profile rules.

Interaction with vehicle profiles

Vehicle profiles interpret road segment properties when calculating routes.

Examples:

A car.fast profile prioritizes segments with higher maximum speeds
A bicycle profile may avoid certain road types
A truck profile may respect additional access restrictions

The same network can yield different routes depending on the selected vehicle profile.

Impact on datasets and simulation

Road network properties affect:

Which routes are available
Which routes are selected during assignment
Travel times and traffic distribution in datasets

When the road network changes:

Existing datasets may need to be recalculated
Assignment results may change even if OD data remains the same

What the road network does not represent

The road network does not include:

Traffic demand
Assigned routes
Traffic volumes
Simulation results

These are represented in datasets and scenarios.

Vehicle profiles
Dataset assignment behaviour
Network and scenario lifecycle