Feasibility and design of a Bike Sharing System in Cagliari: a GeoDesign perspective

The design study presented in this paper assesses the feasibility for the integration of a cycling system in Cagliari aiming at providing an effective sustainable mean of transport as an alternative to cars for short trips. The study also includes the analysis of optimal locations for bike sharing stations and the network design for bicycle lanes within the wider Cagliari urban area. Technical requirements for the bicycle facilities which have been considered for analysis on the base of the review of state of the art manuals and technical guideline used at the international level, are integrated in an original geoprocessing model. The geoprocessing model runs on a geographical database which implement a multi-modal network data model implemented for the purpose. A cycling system composed of four main bicycle lanes and four shared use paths is designed with the support of the geoprocessing model demonstrating the feasibility of the integrated bike sharing system in Cagliari. The overall study implements the concept of GeoDesign from a geo-processing perspective.