Designing Optimal Urban Bus Transportation Network: A Case Study of Ardabil s

This paper aims at designing an optimal network model for urban transportation in Ardabil. In this model, the three important criteria are time, cost and quality. The proposed model minimizes the total traveling time and cost, and, at the same time, maximizes the quality of the transportation services. Because of conflictions among the objectives, and in order to consider the decision maker's preferred structures more effectively, a Lexicographic Goal Programming (LGP) model was developed. Then, an actual case from Ardabil city bus network was illustrated. The solutions confirm high level differences and improvements in the performance of the urban bus network, compared to current bus network situation.