A Review of Dock Less Cycle-share Reallocation

Based On Data Analysis

Sneha Pisey, Anurag Tupone, Harshal Shelke, Nikhil Marne, Sourabh Patil
MES College of Engineering, SPPU, Pune, India
sneha.pisey@mescoepune.org
harshalshelke97@gmail.com

Abstract— Dock less cycle sharing service is primarily used across the world over the conventional dock based cycle sharing
system. However, we need to solve the problem of uneven distribution of these cycles across the city. Exploring large datasets
and withdrawing useful information from it like unrevealed patterns, customer liking and market tendency is done using
data analysis. We can found a way out of the problem of reallocation using data analysis. The dock less cycle share service
and various techniques used for reallocation of the cycles have been studied in this paper.

Keywords— Reallocation, Data analysis, Dock-less cycle, K-Means.

In 2017, the number of cycle share users went up to 227

I. INTRODUCTION

Bicycle sharing initiative is growing in many cities and

regions across the World. It has been emerged as a productive,
reasonable and environmentally safe alternative mobility
service mainly for short distance travelling within the city.
The GPS equipped cycles are available and can be opened
using smartphones while the payment is done online.
[3]Unlike the conventional way where the user had to pick
and return the cycle at fixed pre-decided stations, in the dock
less cycle-share we can take a cycle from anywhere and park it
anywhere inside the service area of the company(figure 1). The
user is relieved from riding the extra distance in search of
docking stations. But it has been seen that the cycle-share is
primarily used for medium- short distance rides and mostly for
one-way trips hence it causes the cycles to be unevenly
distributed across the city. This makes it difficult to find a
cycle at repeated places.

A solution to this problem can be found by using the cycle
use history data analysis methods to redistribute the cycles.
[4] There is plenty of data including the GPS tracking of the
cycles, trip history and user type available. With the help of this
data, we can analyze the information using various techniques of
data analysis. Useful business solutions can be provided from
most frequently used routes of the users and other unknown
patterns, useful correlations.
II. DOCK LESS CYCLE SHARE
Dock less cycle-sharing users can search for the cycles in
their neighbourhood via the apps, and park the cycles
wherever they want at any desired time.
We know from publicly obtainable data that global cycle-
sharing services earned 4.267 billion U.S. Dollars in venture
funding in 2017.[1]
Fig. 1 Unlocking spin cycle with a smartphone [1].
Fig.1 Unlocking the cycle using smartphone [1].
million. It has been believed that in the coming two years, the
number of global cycle share users will carry on to rise and is
assumed to reach 306 million in 2019.
Dock less cycle share is outlined for small, unpremeditated
trips. While the cost of using conventional cycle share for a
single trip (typically, $7/day) could be seen as a hurdle to
ridership, most dock less cycle share models provide single
trips for $1. Although $1 per ride is not great for multiple trips
in one day, it is beneficial for that one-way trip for a tourist, to
move around shortly, or the fast ride to meet friends or ride to
a conference. To gather more frequent users, LimeCycle
provides a monthly package of $30/100 rides.[2].
 Fig.2 Cycle share users over the years [2].
Fig.3 Global cycle share users [1].
III. PROBLEMS OF UNBALANCED DISTRIBUTION
Now during the era of dock less bicycles, cycles are more
useful for the customers. There is no need to think about the
empty cycles share station during the end time of the trip.
Because of this kind of friendly management, it becomes a
major issue for the system operator (who must rebalance cycle
to meet demand) as well as the cities (who must manage a
cluster of bicycles on side walker already under pressure for
competing user).
There are some major drawbacks due to the nature of
operations, such issues are:
 Maintenance
 Bike Durability
 Economic sustainability
 Misplacement issues
The misplacement issues are major problems in dock less
cycles for managing the parking issues. Certain companies
and operators such as 0cycle and LimeCycle provide the
credits in the form of points for returning the cycles to the
particular designated locations parking areas.
The companies such as MOcycle, operators over a 5
million cycles and has 100 million users that all registered.
The approximation of taking trip by MOcycle is 25 million
trip per day. This motivates the end users to park the cycles at
the allocated locations provided by the MOcycle. The
company also gives credit points to the user who report for
over parking situation in the area.
Fig.4 Mobike Dock-less Cycle Share Service [2].
IV.VARIOUS METHODS USED FOR REALLOCATION
There are generally two different strategies for realloction
of dock less cycles:
 User based: In this method users leaves cycles at
allocated parking stations.
 Operator based: The staff provides service to
maintain the balance distribution of cycles.
User based approach:
The companies uses user based realloction strategies for
maintaining balance of supply and the demand by making
some adjustments in the price modulus and lowering rates and
even free of cost during requirement.
For balancing and distribution, customers are provided
with cycles free of cost in the area where balancing is needed.
But there is a drawback that is the customer acceptance and
decisions are very difficult to control and credit.
Operator based approach:
The system managers executed by the company deals
with operator based reallocation strategies. There are two
different possibility of re-allocation for the system providers
Dynamic Reallocation:
According to user need, the cycles are reallocated after
a fixed time of interval in dynamic reallocation. Using non-
linear auto-regressive neutral networks a decision support
system is developed for reallocating available cycles. This
allocation is based upon the historical data of cycles used.
Static Reallocation:
The static reallocation occurs during nigh time as user
are negligible by using the fleet of vehicles operation of
redistribution of cycles is done. This is also known as
rebalancing. Using K-means clustering algorithm the data is
preprocessed which is collected during a particular day. This
algorithm clusters the cycles, which become more user
friendly which satisfy the demand of the end users.
V. USE OF DATA ANALYSIS FOR DATA ANALYSIS
Large datasets are examined using Data analysis to discover
knowledge from it to find business solutions. To abstract
useful information, hidden patterns and unknown correlations
the datasets can be analyzed. To find the preferred routes of
the users and reallocate the cycles based on it the GPS-data of
the cycles can be analyzed.
include the effective setting of demand and supply for the
profit of both customer and service providing company.
However, in dynamic method the reallocation is performed
after a specific time interval throughout the day. To improve
the availability of the service to ensure maximum user
satisfaction the service providing company can use these
techniques.

Data Gathering and Pre-processing:

In this phase of pre-processing, ride and customer data as

well as location factors in terms of external geographical data
are gathered. The data should be properly cleaned and selected
to make it suitable for analysis. And also aggregation and
normalization of data helps to assure the solid basis for data
analysis algorithms.

Data Analysis:

In this phase, in order to group stations according to their

normalized cycle pickup and return activity cluster analysis is
used. To discover the location dependent reasons for activity
patterns the outcome in the form of temporal patterns are
spatially examined. Firstly, the clustering tendency of the ride
data is determined here. Then, different cluster algorithms are
used to apply and evaluate with validation measures. [7]
Visualization and interpretation:
This is the last phase, which is completed by visualization
and interpretation of clusters. The results from the cluster
analysis have to be validated and tested in a post-processing
step. For a spatial interpretation of clusters, visualization of
clusters with a geographical information system is needed.
Other methods for improving the service of cycle-sharing :
Along with the reallocation to improve the service we can
also detect the unusable cycles. Some cycles remain
undetected and so unusable for users, which appear in the
information systems as available ones to the users. This
inaccuracy of undetected and unusable cycles may adversely
affect user's route choices and it may result in an inferior
service level. By using the proposed method [6] the unusable
cycles can be detected which could be repaired and used
again.
VI. CONCLUSION
Fig.5 Data analysis for reallocation [1].
VII. REFERENCES
[1] http://data.cmcm.com/report/detail/260
[2] https://altaplanning.com/dockless-cycle-share/
[3] Simone Weikl and Klaus Bogenberger. Relocation
Strategies and Algorithms for Free-Floating Car Sharing
Systems. IEEE Intelligent transportation systems magazine,
Winter 2013.
[4] Leonardo Caggiani, Rosalia Camporeale, et al. A
modeling framework for the dynamic management of free-
floating bike-sharing systems.Transportation Research Part C,
vol. 87, pp. 159-182, 2018.
[5] Ming Liu, Xifen Xu. Dockless Bike-sharing Reallocation
based on Data Analysis: Solving Complex Problem with
Simple Method. 2018 IEEE Third International Conference on
Data Science in Cyberspace.
[6] Mor Kaspi,TalRaviv , MichalTzur. Detection of unusable
bicycles in bike-sharing systems. Omega 65 (2016).
[7] Patrick Vogel, Torsten Greiser, Dirk Christian
Mattfeld.Understanding Bike-Sharing Systems using Data
Mining: Exploring Activity Patterns. Procedia Social and
Behavioral Sciences 20 (2011) 514–523

This paper has analysed the dock less cycle-sharing system

and also the reallocation problem associated with it. Here we
learned that there are basically two main approaches for
reallocating the cycles i.e. User based approach and Operator
Based approach. As the user-based approach has certain
limitations Operator based approach is usually preferred for
the reallocation. In static method, by analysing the data of that
particular day’s trip history the reallocation is performed
overnight. This can be used to generate constructive and
accurate suggestions for managing dock less cycles, which