A model for planning a bicycle network with multi-criteria suitability evaluation using GIS

Bicycles are becoming an important mode of travel in terms of energy consumption and greening the transportation system of the 21 st century. Creating a bicycle network in the urban areas is the key point to encourage the use of the bicycle as the daily mode of personal transportation. In this paper, a multicriteria assessment model was developed to assess the suitability of designing bicycle routes by using a geographic information system (GIS). The criteria selected in this study consist of traffic volume, curb lane width, sidewalk width, speed limit, pavement quality, and curb activity disturbance. They are standardized and summed by weights. The weight values are determined using the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process. By comparing the shortest path with a path suitable for bicycles, the need to modify the street layout and make it more suitable for bicycle traffic is then determined in terms of the relationship between them. This model is a useful tool to analyze the suitability level of the existing street network and generate a street reconstruction program for making the existing street network suitable for bicycle use.