Introducing Park and Ride Location Model And Solving It Using Genetic Algorithms In The GIS Environment.

Nowadays one of the biggest problem that urban transit system planners are facing with it, is lacking of enough availability of the system for private vehicles. So Providing reliable and efficient public transportation for this group is an effective way for overcoming car dependency. One of the alternatives that can reduces this problem is Park-and-ride that has been used since 1930s as a travel demand management measure.
For the effective use of park-and-ride facilities, lots of elements should be considered. Park-and-ride facilities in the U.S. and Japan are being well utilized and One of the major factors in theses countries for the successful operations is the location of facilities.
Given this, this paper is devoted to the development of a GIS based two-parts method for locating park and ride facilities based on a defined set of criteria, which will include such things as demand coverage, access to major roads, using existing parking sites, high performance transit priority as compared to bus system, proximity of each site to CBD, distance between sites, limited capacity for each site, locating sites beyond the congested area and etc.
Past researchs has identified criteria that are relevant to optimal park-and-ride location, but much of them do not address all of the above objectives ...