Identification of Priority areas for Cycling using GIS: A Case of Kochi City Region

Cities today face many urban challenges related to high population density. Transportation is one such challenge that results in problems of congestion and pollution, especially with burgeoning private car usage. Cycling is one among the foremost sustainable modes of transportation. The average trip length in Indian cities is convenient for cycling but the share of cycling as a mode of transport has been declining. Creating a bicycle network within the urban areas is the key to encourage the utilization of the bicycle as the daily mode of private transportation. Kochi City Region (KCR) in Kerala was selected as the study area as the share of private vehicles has been increasing and there is a need for a sustainable mode of transportation. The paper focuses on how to identify priority cycling areas in an already developed urban area. The study identifies how to deploy certain geographic information system (GIS) tools along with Multi criteria decision analysis (MCDA) for analyzing multilayered spatial data at the city level. The results confirms that the use of these GIS tools for analyzing various parameters for identifying priority areas for cycling routes is efficient.