A Simulation Framework for the Rebalancing and Maintenance of Bicycle-sharing Systems

Bicycle-sharing system (BSS) has attracted much attention due to its great success in providing a low-cost and environment-friendly alternative to traditional public transportation systems. In some BSSs comprised of stations with fixed docks, customer satisfaction can be measured by the availability of bikes for pick-ups and/or open docks for returns. However, it is quite common that the spatial balance of bike inventories will be broken due to customers' behavior or frequent failures of bikes and docks. As a result, constant rebalancing and maintenance services are required to sustain adequate levels of customer satisfaction. In this research, a simulation framework is developed to optimize the rebalancing and maintenance activities while satisfying customers' needs over a service area. An optimization model solved by Ant Colony Optimization is applied on the Citibike in New York City, which is considered as an example to validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed simulation framework.