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Modelling the scaling properties of human mobility

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Song, Chaoming, Koren, Tal, Wang, Pu, Barabási, Albert-László·2010·Nature Physics
DOI 10.1038/nphys1760
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Abstract

Individual human trajectories are characterized by fat-tailed distributions of jump sizes and waiting times, suggesting the relevance of continuous-time random-walk (CTRW) models for human mobility. However, human traces are barely random. Given the importance of human mobility, from epidemic modelling to traffic prediction and urban planning, we need quantitative models that can account for the statistical characteristics of individual human trajectories. Here we use empirical data on human mobility, captured by mobile-phone traces, to show that the predictions of the CTRW models are in systematic conflict with the empirical results. We introduce two principles that govern human trajectories, allowing us to build a statistically self-consistent microscopic model for individual human mobility. The model accounts for the empirically observed scaling laws, but also allows us to analytically predict most of the pertinent scaling exponents.

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Metadata

Authors
Song, C., Koren, T., Wang, P., & Barabási, A.-L.
Venue
Nature Physics
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2010-09-12
Volume
6
Issue
10
Pages
818-823
ISSN
  • 1745-2473 (ISSN-L)
  • 1745-2481
DOI
10.1038/nphys1760
OpenAlex
W2133400794
Cited by
1,284
References
2
FWCI
111.72
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green
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Song, C., Koren, T., Wang, P., & Barabási, A.-L. (2010). Modelling the scaling properties of human mobility. Nature Physics. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1760

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