Abstract: The flourishing complex network theory has aroused increasing interest in studying the properties of real-world networks. Based on the traffic network of Chang–Zhu–Tan urban agglomeration in central China, some basic network topological characteristics were computed with data collected from local traffic maps, which showed that the traffic networks were small-world networks with strong resilience against failure; more importantly, the investigations of assortativity coefficient and average nearest-neighbour degree implied the disassortativity of the traffic networks. Since traffic network hierarchy as an important basic property has been neither studied intensively nor proved quantitatively, the authors are inspired to analyse traffic network hierarchy with disassortativity and to finely characterize hierarchy in the traffic networks by using the n-degree–n-clustering coefficient relationship. Through numerical results and analyses an exciting conclusion is drawn that the traffic networks exhibit a significant hierarchy, that is, the traffic networks are proved to be hierarchically organized. The result provides important information and theoretical groundwork for optimal transport planning.

Key words: traffic network, hierarchy property, n-clustering coefficient, disassortativity