The achievement of some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the recent
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has drawn the attention of many countries towards
urban transport networks. Mathematical modeling constitutes an analytical tool for the formal
description of a transportation system whereby it facilitates the introduction of variables and the
definition of objectives to be optimized. One of the stages of the methodology followed in the
design of urban transit systems starts with the determination of corridors to optimize the population
covered by the system whilst taking into account the mobility patterns of potential users and the
time saved when the public network is used instead of private means of transport. Since the capture
of users occurs at stations, it seems reasonable to consider an extensive and homogeneous set of
candidate sites evaluated according to the parameters considered (such as pedestrian population
captured and destination preferences) and to select subsets of stations so that alignments can take
place. The application of optimization procedures that decide the sequence of nodes composing the
alignment can produce zigzagging corridors, which are less appropriate for the design of a single line.
The main aim of this work is to include a new criterion to avoid the zigzag effect when the alignment
is about to be determined. For this purpose, a curvature concept for polygonal lines is introduced,
and its performance is analyzed when criteria of maximizing coverage and minimizing curvature are
combined in the same design algorithm. The results show the application of the mathematical model
presented for a real case in the city of Seville in Spain.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MTM2015-67706-
