Wegwegen

Wegwegen is a term used in transportation planning to denote the set of alternative routes that connect two locations. Derived from the German words Weg meaning “path” and Wegen the plural form, the term is most often encountered in German-language planning literature, though it is sometimes used in international contexts as a general concept for route choice analysis.

Definition and scope: Wegwegen encompasses road networks, rail lines, waterways and pedestrian or cycling paths that could connect origin and destination. It captures both static aspects such as network topology and dynamic aspects such as traffic conditions, closures, incidents, and weather. The concept is used to compare options based on travel time, distance, cost, reliability, and environmental impact.

Methods and tools: Analysts model Wegwegen with graphs and networks. Common tools include geographic information systems (GIS), routing engines, and graph-search algorithms such as Dijkstra’s or A* for shortest-path calculations. Multi-criteria decision analysis and simulation are used to evaluate trade-offs among driver preference, cost, and risk.

Applications: Wegwegen informs urban planning, logistics, public transportation planning, emergency response, tourism planning, and travel advisories. It supports real-time routing and strategic infrastructure investments by illustrating how changes to the network affect available paths.

History and usage: The term appears in planning texts from the late 20th century onward and remains regional in usage. While not a formal technical standard, Wegwegen serves as a convenient label for discussions of alternative routes and route-choice problems in network analysis.