Locating rental stations and bikeways in a public bike system

ABSTRACT

To determine the spatial distribution of rental stations and bikeways in a public bike system, this paper proposes a facility location and network design model. The model is developed as a multi-objective programing problem that considers four objectives (minimizing cyclist risk, maximizing cyclist comfort, minimizing adverse impacts on traffic and maximizing service coverage) and multiple constraints (monetary budget, network connectivity, station spacing, bikeway types, station number and value ranges of decision variables). The ε-constraint method solves the programing problem for the public bike system in Daan District, Taipei City, Taiwan. The nine non-dominated alternatives generated are all markedly better than existing locations of rental stations and bikeways. Scenario analysis results indicate that increasing the construction budget for bikeways significantly improves cyclist safety and comfort whilst increasing the adverse impact on traffic. Planners can use this model to develop public bike systems that spatially integrate rental stations and bikeway networks.

KEYWORDS:

• Bikeway
• network design problem
• facility location problem
• public bike system
• mathematical programing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Jen-Jia Lin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7010-7132

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [grant number 1000000 TWD].