Active Balancing of Bike Sharing Systems

This book reports on an operational management approach to improving bike-sharing systems by compensating for fluctuating demand patterns. The aim is to redistribute bikes within the system, allowing it to be "actively" balanced. The book describes a mathematical model, as well as data-driven and simulation-based approaches. Further, it shows how these elements can be combined in a decision-making support system for service providers. In closing, the book uses real-world data to evaluate the method developed and demonstrates that it can successfully anticipate changes in demand, thus supporting efficient scheduling of transport vehicles to manually relocate bikes between stations.

Contenu
Introduction.- Bike Sharing Systems.- Optimization Problems.- Dynamic Decision Making.- The Stochastic-Dynamic Multi-Vehicle Inventory Routing Problem for Bike Sharing Systems.- Lookahead Policies.- Dynamic Lookahead Horizons.- Case Studies.- Managerial Implications.- Future Research.