Optimizing the Layout of Bike-Sharing Rental Stations Based on the Hierarchical Model

With the development of traffic motorization, urban traffic problems persist. In order to overcome traffic problems, it is imperative to develop a comprehensive bike-sharing system. However, the current bike-sharing system faces the challenges of site selection and determining the number of slots needed for rental stations. Therefore, this paper will take the bike-sharing system as its starting point and focuses on the layout of the stations. Based on the hierarchical model, an optimal model with capacity constraints for the system’s location is studied to minimize the walk cost for users, setup cost and penalties. With the model successfully solved by LINGO, this paper will also demonstrate the whole process of the planning with an instance that verifies the efficiency and feasibility of the model. The study’s results show the significance of optimizing the public bike rental station layout on solving the “last mile” problem.