Locating of Bicycle Stations in the City of Isfahan Using Mathematical Programming and Multi-Criteria Decision Making Techniques

There are several factors that necessitate the use of bicycle as a non-motorized transportation vehicle. Some of these factors include: Increase of the air pollution, many vehicles traveling simultaneously and creating massive traffic in the urban streets, decrease in the citizens’ physical activities, and danger of peoples’ health. The favorable distribution of bicycle stations that act as the mediator between users and bicycles can play an important role in the increase of bicycle usage. This is the reason that present study was aimed to find the best locations of bicycle stations through mathematical programming and multi-criteria decision making techniques. In order to implement such study, the appropriate criterions of location have been weighted through analytical hierarchy process (AHP), in which final weights of the proposed locations have been calculated through SAW method. In the next step, the combination model has been developed and the final location of bicycle stations has been determined. The results of this study indicated that there were four main factors that influenced the bicycle stations location that some of them had their own sub-factors. These factors included closeness to the bicycle path, transportation and networks, demand, and use type. The resulted locations from combination model indicated reliability of the model.