Optimal Location Model of Bus Terminals and Evaluation of Factors Affecting It

Terminals are major urban passenger centers that play an important role in collecting demand and distributing it on the network. The proper functioning of terminals depends on their proper planning, an important part of which is devoted to their principled location. The issue of locating intra-city bus terminals should be considered as optimization issues.

 The mentioned method is based on four consecutive stages, according to which, in the first and second stages, the candidate points for the construction of intercity bus terminals are selected according to the network of bus lines and the location of the lanes, as well as according to the existing terminals. In the third stage, the cost of construction and acquisition, the value of access to adjacent uses, as well as the amount of coverage that each candidate points provide in the city, are evaluated. Finally, in the fourth stage, the problem is transformed from a multi-objective mode to a single-objective maximization problem using the ideal planning method, as a result of which the top points are identified among the candidate points. In order to better understand the proposed method, the problem of locating terminals was implemented in the city of Shiraz, which finally selected the proposed 3-point algorithm as the final points for the construction of intercity bus terminals.

Examination of the results of the model and parameters of selected points shows that these points are among the important and effective points for the construction of the terminal and are relatively in good agreement with the policy of Shiraz Municipality Bus Organization in locating the terminals.

Originality/Value:

In this paper, an innovative method is used to solve the problem of locating terminals, which strengthens the existing knowledge.