Evaluation of the effect of monetary rewards on user participatory bike-rebalancing

Abstract

Bike-sharing systems (BSS) have been progressively introduced all around the world in the recent decade as smart transportation applications developed. All these BSS systems have a common chronic problem: the uneven distribution of bikes due to inhomogeneous trip demand. In most systems, the redistribution of bikes by moving bikes from full stations to empty ones is done by operator-based applications, namely truck distribution. Operator-based rebalancing process accompanies additional traffic on roads, fuel consumption, and operational costs by contradicting the system's own environmentally friendly mission. In this context, this study aims to evaluate the effect of monetary rewards on user-participation-based bike rebalancing. To that end, we conducted a survey on bike-share system users across South Korea to measure different influential parameters on their decision process for participating in the rebalancing of bikes if they were given a reward. Bike-share users’ perceptional attitudes are also included in the evaluation process by integrating their choices with latent variables through the Integrated Choice and Latent Variable (ICLV) model. Model results revealed that all the trip attributes, sociodemographic and latent variables included in the model are statistically significant. Perception of friendliness to bike use, accessibility of bike rental location, and affordability and diversity of payment plans for shared bikes are important factors in bike-share users’ choice process regarding participation in the shared-bike redistribution strategy.