Design and Management of Vehicle Sharing Systems: A Survey of Algorithmic Approaches

摘要

Vehicle (bike or car) sharing represents an emerging transportation schemewhich may comprise an important link in the green mobility chain of smart cityenvironments. This chapter offers a comprehensive review of algorithmicapproaches for the design and management of vehicle sharing systems. Our focusis on one-way vehicle sharing systems (wherein customers are allowed to pick-upa vehicle at any location and return it to any other station) which best suitstypical urban journey requirements. Along this line, we present methods dealingwith the so-called asymmetric demand-offer problem (i.e. the unbalanced offerand demand of vehicles) typically experienced in one-way sharing systems whichseverely affects their economic viability as it implies that considerable human(and financial) resources should be engaged in relocating vehicles to satisfycustomer demand. The chapter covers all planning aspects that affect theeffectiveness and viability of vehicle sharing systems: the actual systemdesign (e.g. number and location of vehicle station facilities, vehicle fleetsize, vehicles distribution among stations); customer incentivisation schemesto motivate customer-based distribution of bicycles/cars (such schemes offermeaningful incentives to users so as to leave their vehicle to a stationdifferent to that originally intended and satisfy future user demand);cost-effective solutions to schedule operator-based repositioning ofbicycles/cars (by employees explicitly enrolled in vehicle relocation) based onthe current and future (predicted) demand patterns (operator-based andcustomer-based relocation may be thought as complementary methods to achievethe intended distribution of vehicles among stations).