Bicycle Station and Lane Location Selection Using Open Source GIS Technology

Abstract

To create more sustainable and livable cities, researchers work on different topics. In this context, bicycles have an important positive effect on people living in urban areas since they provide not only relief of traffic congestion but also enhance citizens’ health. The finding suitable locations of bicycle sharing system stations and bicycle lanes are attracted attention because they have a huge contribution to providing bicycles are part of everyday life. The aim of this study is to propose a workflow that combines GIS and MCDM methods to determine locations of bicycle sharing system stations and bicycle lanes together. MCDM methods are used to identify which criterion more effective than others since different factors affect the location selection process. Weights of criteria are obtained using AHP, FAHP, and BWM while TOPSIS is applied to rank alternative locations. To provide a more useful and sharable solution, site selection model is prepared in QGIS which is a widely used open source GIS software. First, three different suitability index are obtained using weights that came from MCDM methods. After, average analysis is applied to these suitability indexes so as to increase the reliability of the result. Furthermore, three different scenario applications that take into consideration whether study area has bicycle sharing system station and bike lane currently are implemented in this study. Various alternative locations for bicycle sharing system station and bike lane are proposed in order to support urban planning studies.