A Rebalancing Strategy for the Imbalance Problem in Bike-Sharing Systems

Peiyu Yi, Feihu Huang and Jian Peng
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Peiyu Yi: College of Computer Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, Sichuan, China
Feihu Huang: College of Computer Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, Sichuan, China
Jian Peng: College of Computer Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, Sichuan, China

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 13, 1-18

Abstract: Shared bikes have become popular traveling tools in our daily life. The successful operation of bike sharing systems (BSS) can greatly promote energy saving in a city. In BSS, stations becoming empty or full is the main cause of customers failing to rent or return bikes. Some truck-based rebalancing strategies are proposed to solve this problem. However, there are still challenges around the relocation of bikes. The truck operating costs also need to be considered. In this paper, we propose a customer-oriented rebalancing strategy to solve this problem. In our strategy, two algorithms are proposed to ensure the whole system is balanced for as long as possible. The first algorithm calculates the optimal state of each station through the one-dimensional Random Walk Process with two absorption walls. Based on the derived optimal state of each station, the second algorithm recommends the station that has the largest difference between its current state and its optimal state to the customer. In addition, a simulation system of shared bikes based on the historical records of Bay Area Bikeshare is built to evaluate the performance of our proposed rebalancing strategy. The simulation results indicate that the proposed strategy is able to effectively decrease the imbalance in the system and increase the system’s performance compared with the truck-based methods.

Keywords: bike sharing; energy saving; system rebalancing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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