Method for Exploring Travel Routes Based on Cycle Ports in Bike-Sharing System

In recent years, many planners have focused on building transportation systems that combine public transportation and bicycles in order to reduce excessive car use in urban centers. In such a system, users can conveniently use bicycles for routes that are not accessible by public transportation. The number of users of community bicycles, which allow users to rent and return bicycles at any cycle port, is increasing. However, when no bicycle is available for rental at the cycle port near the desired starting point, or when a bicycle cannot be returned because all of the individual cycle docks at the desired destination are occupied, users must delay their arrival time by moving to another cycle port. In this paper, we propose a method for exploring travel routes while considering the cycle ports in a bike-sharing system. We evaluate the performance of the proposed method by implementing an application that combines a map of cycle ports with the traffic simulation software SUMO, which can display real-time information on the rental status of each port in the “Momochari” bike-sharing system operated in Okayama City, Japan. Users can check basic information, like the route from starting point to destination, travel time, and cycle ports to use, on their mobile terminal, thus increasing the convenience of the community cycle service. In our evaluation, we first studied the required processing time, in executing the application, to find the optimal simulation environment. Next, we determined the processing time needed when the application was executed over multiple paths and confirmed that this processing time was approximately five to six minutes regardless of the distance of the input path. Finally, we evaluated the accuracy of port selection by comparing the distances between the renting/returning ports selected by the application and the surrounding ports.