Bike sharing allows a subscriber to take a bike from one of hundreds of locations in a city, use it, and return it to another location at the end of the journey. While the idea of municipal bike sharing is gaining speed and subscribers at the 400 locations around the world where it has been implemented, there have been growing pains—partly because the projects have been so successful. About 7% of the time, users aren’t able to return a bike because the station at their journey’s destination is full. Sometimes stations experience bike shortages, causing frustration with the system.

These stations are managed imperfectly, based on what the station managers see. They use their best guesses to move bikes to different locations around the city using trucks. There is no system for more scientifically managing the availability of bikes, creating dissatisfaction among users in popular parts of the city.

— Dr. Raviv

The research was presented in November 2010 at the INFORMS 2010 annual meeting in Austin, Texas.

Dr. Raviv, Prof. Tzur and their students have created a mathematical model to predict which bike stations should be refilled or emptied—and when that needs to happen. The researchers say they are the first to tackle bike-sharing system management using mathematical models and are currently developing a practical algorithmic solution.

Our research involves devising methods and algorithms to solve the routing and scheduling problems of the trucks that move fleets, as well as other operational and design challenges within this system.

—Dr. Raviv

The city of Tel Aviv is now in the process of deploying a bike sharing system to ease transport around the city, and improve the quality of life for its residents. Tel Aviv University research is contributing to this plan, and the results will be used in a pilot site in Israel.