Optimizing park and ride location selection using the novel parsimonious full consistency method: Insights from Cuenca, Ecuador

The rapid expansion of the automotive fleet in Latin America, coupled with the excessive utilization of automobiles, has resulted in significant challenges related to traffic congestion and environmental pollution. One of the mechanisms within transportation planning to mitigate excessive car use is utilizing the park and ride (P&R) system. Nevertheless, implementing multimodal hubs as a P&R system in Latin America has been relatively limited despite their prevalence in other global regions as a crucial transportation infrastructure component. Implementing a P&R system requires transportation planners with different types of expertise to study a set of criteria that are ranked in order of importance. To perform these analyses, it is necessary to use multi-criteria methods to understand which criteria are the ultimate important for their location. Our study highlights the gap in the limited implementation of P&R systems, particularly multimodal hubs, in Latin America despite their prevalence in other places such as Europe and the United States that have developed P&R systems in combination with the implementation of public transport systems. The adoption of the Full Consistency Method (FUCOM) with parsimonious preference information fills this gap by providing a flexible and adaptable approach to decision-making in dynamic and unpredictable urban environments like Cuenca in Ecuador. The findings indicate that utilizing this methodology enhances the efficiency and precision in determining the criteria for the placement of the P&R system. In conclusion, consideration of public transport accessibility serves as a foundational aspect for developing P&R system in the Latin American city under investigation. In essence, implementation of the P&R system is closely linked to optimization of public transportation system.