Multi-Criteria Performance and Spatial Density Analysis of Urban Bus Lines under an Intelligent Transportation Systems Framework: The Case of Bandırma

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are central to making urban public transport more efficient, sustainable, and equitable. This study evaluates the operational performance and spatial configuration of nine urban bus lines in the Bandırma district of Türkiye by jointly analyzing daily passenger records and route geometry. A total of 1,265 daily observations, representing approximately 2.23 million passenger movements over the March–July 2022 period, are examined, and actual route lengths are derived from coordinate sequences using the haversine formula. Four key performance indicators—average daily ridership, passengers-per-kilometer efficiency, the weekend-to-weekday demand ratio, and the coefficient of variation—are integrated through the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), a multi-criteria decision-making method, to rank the lines objectively. Spatial behavior is characterized through a route-density map overlaid on a CARTO Positron basemap, which exposes service overlaps and coverage gaps, while inter-line demand co-movement is quantified using Pearson correlation. The results indicate that Line 10 (Faculty–Hospital) attains the highest performance (TOPSIS score 0.886; 5,398 passengers/day; 568.8 passengers/km), whereas Line 9 (Livatya) ranks lowest (0.004). A mean inter-line correlation of 0.63 reveals a system-wide common demand pattern, implying that scheduling decisions should be coordinated across lines. The proposed framework offers a reproducible, data-driven decision-support tool for trip planning, resource allocation, and route optimization in small- and medium-sized cities.Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are central to making urban public transport more efficient, sustainable, and equitable. This study evaluates the operational performance and spatial configuration of nine urban bus lines in the Bandırma district of Türkiye by jointly analyzing daily passenger records and route geometry. A total of 1,265 daily observations, representing approximately 2.23 million passenger movements over the March–July 2022 period, are examined, and actual route lengths are derived from coordinate sequences using the haversine formula. Four key performance indicators—average daily ridership, passengers-per-kilometer efficiency, the weekend-to-weekday demand ratio, and the coefficient of variation—are integrated through the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), a multi-criteria decision-making method, to rank the lines objectively. Spatial behavior is characterized through a route-density map overlaid on a CARTO Positron basemap, which exposes service overlaps and coverage gaps, while inter-line demand co-movement is quantified using Pearson correlation. The results indicate that Line 10 (Faculty–Hospital) attains the highest performance (TOPSIS score 0.886; 5,398 passengers/day; 568.8 passengers/km), whereas Line 9 (Livatya) ranks lowest (0.004). A mean inter-line correlation of 0.63 reveals a system-wide common demand pattern, implying that scheduling decisions should be coordinated across lines. The proposed framework offers a reproducible, data-driven decision-support tool for trip planning, resource allocation, and route optimization in small- and medium-sized cities.