Prioritizing Modes of Public Transportation in Tehran to Improve Budgeting System

Due to the growth of urbanization, public transportation has been seriously considered in many mega cities in recent years and therefore utilization of all modes of public transportation by prioritizing them is one of the most significant issues in such cities. The purpose of this paper is to provide a method for prioritizing the public transportation in City of Tehran by applying an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). In this research, at the first step, the effective criteria in priority of public transportation were defined, then by applying an expert choice technique and completing questioners by experts in Transportation and Traffic Department of Tehran Municipality, the criteria were `revised and finalized. To complete the research, a Group Hierarchal Analysis Method was used to prioritize the existing public transportation modes in City of Tehran. The results were then compared to budget allocated to each mode of public transportation in Tehran in the past ten years, and recommendations were suggested to correct the Budget Allocation System. Results show that the subway has the highest priority, followed by BRT, bus, van taxi and taxi. Also the sensitivity analysis showed that the ranking results have the highest sensitivity to the “aim of travel” and can highly be affected by this criterion. Based on results of this research, subway, as a mode of transportation has the highest priority in the City of Tehran and therefore the allocation of public budget should be revised according to this priority.