A Systematic Review of Station Location Techniques for Bicycle-Sharing Systems Planning and Operation

Abstract

Designing or expanding a bicycle-sharing system (BSS) involves addressing the infrastructure’s location of the bicycle stations. Station location is an essential factor for designing and implementing a new system or for its operation. In a complex spatial optimization context, geographic information systems (GIS) can support this decision problem. There are also numerous ways of subdividing the broad spectrum of location-allocation models used in previous studies. However, a station location comprehensive review and systematization with the specific aim of characterizing the state of the art of BSS is missing. The present research aimed to provide a comprehensive systematization for station location problems, criteria, and techniques, seeking to identify the current state of practice. We searched scientific publication databases to collect relevant publications—the final list comprised 24 papers for the literature review. The systematization addresses the two major problems concerning bicycle station location: initial network design and operation improvement (where changes in operating a BSS are implemented). Based on the literature, we propose a set of four main criteria for choosing appropriate places for bike stations (or parking) in a city: “bike network”, “operator”, “user”, and “city infrastructure”. The sub-criteria mentioned in the literature are categorized based on the proposed classification and new sub-criteria are suggested. We also group location modeling techniques into three categories: “mathematical algorithms”, “multi-criteria decision making”, and “GIS”. Combining GIS and multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) has received more attention in recent years to locate bike stations, evaluate their operating performance, and have more accurate and practical results.

A GIS-MCDM Method for Ranking Potential Station Locations in the Expansion of Bike-Sharing Systems

“…Many methods have been used for facility location selection problems, some of which are related to transportation station locations, such as electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSs) [17], bus stations [18], and metro stations [19], among others. Based on the literature, many different location modeling techniques have been used to optimize the location problem, which we can categorize into three groups [16]: "Mathematical algorithms", "MCDM", and "GIS". The combination of GIS and MCDM has received more attention in recent years to locate bike stations and has more precise and practical results [16].…”

“…Based on the literature, many different location modeling techniques have been used to optimize the location problem, which we can categorize into three groups [16]: "Mathematical algorithms", "MCDM", and "GIS". The combination of GIS and MCDM has received more attention in recent years to locate bike stations and has more precise and practical results [16].…”

“…We selected criteria from four categories: "bike network", "operator", "user", and "city infrastructure", which were previously collected from a comprehensive literature review [16]. We complemented the set of criteria after analyzing the characteristics of a currently operating BSS.…”

“…First, the criteria chosen for the station location generally exclude the executive and operational dimensions (i.e., system criteria that include aspects such as bike trip duration, user residence location, the existence of bike stations, and bike parking, among others). Generally, the location of a bike station (or bicycle parking) considers four main criteria categories: "bike network", "operator", "user", and "city infrastructure" [16], which we included in our study. Stations are located mainly based on theoretical criteria.…”

populR: a Package for Population Downscaling in R

“…Information about the spatial distribution of the population is crucial in addressing a wide range of geographical information science problems (Dobson et al 2000;Ahola et al 2007;Freire and Aubrecht 2012;Bian and Wilmot 2015;Calka, Nowak Da Costa, and Bielecka 2017;Batsaris et al 2019;Bahadori, Gonçalves, and Moura 2021;Wang et al 2021;Han, Hu, and Wang 2020). One of the most common sources of population data is the Census of Population (Tenerelli, Gallego, and Ehrlich 2015;Liu, Kyriakidis, and Goodchild 2008).…”