Car-Sharing (CS) services allow users to benefit from the advantages of private cars, without the costs of owning one. In this framework, “one-way” car-sharing systems are able to provide users with a higher level of service through offering them flexibility in time and location of leaving the service, since they do not require the “return trip” to the origin station. Moreover, the possibility of leaving the vehicle at any free parking area which is not necessarily a “station” would increase the flexibility offered by the system. Introducing this improvement to car-sharing systems leads to the vehicle relocation problem, which should be addressed carefully to avoid concentration of vehicles in certain areas. This issue is studied in this paper using Discrete Event Systems (DESs), which allow an easy representation of the complex dynamics of the system. A user-based methodology is proposed based on an optimal relocation policy in a rolling horizon framework. This methodology, in addition to offering greater flexibility to the users, maximizes the operator benefits by reducing the number of required staff for relocating vehicles among the stations, and determines the minimum number of vehicles to satisfy the system demand. The DES model is then applied to a case study to evaluate the proposed approach. The results show a significant decrease in the rejection rate from the worst scenario (no relocation) to the best scenario (relocation of all vehicles by the users). In the end, some suggestions for additional research and developments of this study are identified.

ONE-WAY CAR-SHARING: SOLVING THE RELOCATIONPROBLEM

DI FEBBRARO, ANGELA;SACCO, NICOLA;
2012-01-01

Abstract

Car-Sharing (CS) services allow users to benefit from the advantages of private cars, without the costs of owning one. In this framework, “one-way” car-sharing systems are able to provide users with a higher level of service through offering them flexibility in time and location of leaving the service, since they do not require the “return trip” to the origin station. Moreover, the possibility of leaving the vehicle at any free parking area which is not necessarily a “station” would increase the flexibility offered by the system. Introducing this improvement to car-sharing systems leads to the vehicle relocation problem, which should be addressed carefully to avoid concentration of vehicles in certain areas. This issue is studied in this paper using Discrete Event Systems (DESs), which allow an easy representation of the complex dynamics of the system. A user-based methodology is proposed based on an optimal relocation policy in a rolling horizon framework. This methodology, in addition to offering greater flexibility to the users, maximizes the operator benefits by reducing the number of required staff for relocating vehicles among the stations, and determines the minimum number of vehicles to satisfy the system demand. The DES model is then applied to a case study to evaluate the proposed approach. The results show a significant decrease in the rejection rate from the worst scenario (no relocation) to the best scenario (relocation of all vehicles by the users). In the end, some suggestions for additional research and developments of this study are identified.
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11567/314808
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact