Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
4.2 Maximize Coverage
Subsequently, the localization of stations was solved by function Maximize Cov-
erage. This function needs as input parameter the number of facilities. The results of
previous analysis Minimize Facilities were used. This analysis tries to place the
limited number of points to maximize the covered area. The amount of candidate
points was taken bigger than in the previous analysis. Points with weight 4 were
also considered. Total number of candidate points was 4,645. Output of that
analysis was lines that connected demand points with their localized facilities
(rental stations). Finally, the polygons belonging to localized facilities were
obtained by analysis Service Area. The polygons were solved as not overlapping
polygons. For both versions (3 and 4 min) service areas were determinated.
5 Proposal of Capacities for Stations
Final step was a suggestion of capacity for each station. Capacity means the number
of position (stands) for bicycles in station. Base information was the service area of
each station. The area, that was covered by station, was determined by tool Service
Area from extension Network Analyst for ArcGIS. For each 78 stations were
determined 78 polygons of service areas (Fig.
2
). The polygon features class was
joined with the point layer of address points with the number of inhabitants. Total
number of inhabitants that belong to each service area was calculated (Fig.
3
).
Although the technical realisation did not propose, the sizes of stations were
suggested in that case study. The modules from 10 up to 40 positions were con-
sidered (modules with 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 stands). The inspiration was
taken from other cities. Table
1
shows the situation in some European cities. The
rental services have more stand than bicycles to guarantee space for parking. The
ration is about 10. The number of bicycles and stands per 1,000 inhabitants very
vary in cities. The redistribution of bicycles between stations is sometimes neces-
sary. It happens especially in the morning when commuters arrive at the main
railway station, and bike rental station is empty very quickly. Inverse situation is in
the afternoon.
The limits for the number of inhabitants for modular rental station were
experimentally suggested achieving average number of 6.85 stands per 1,000
inhabitants (Table
2
).
According to calculated number of inhabitants in each service area the size of
capacity was manually assigned to the rental stations. Final localization of rental
stations and their capacities are on the map in Fig.
4
. Each station is labelled by the
suggested capacity.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search