IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i19p5425-d272379.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysis of Network Structure of Urban Bike-Sharing System: A Case Study Based on Real-Time Data of a Public Bicycle System

Author

Listed:
  • Yi Yao

    (School of Mathematical Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China)

  • Yifang Zhang

    (School of Mathematical Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China)

  • Lixin Tian

    (School of Mathematical Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China)

  • Nianxing Zhou

    (School of Geography, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China)

  • Zhilin Li

    (Department of Mathematics, North Carolina State University, NC 27695, USA)

  • Minggang Wang

    (School of Mathematical Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
    Department of Mathematics, Nanjing Normal University Taizhou College, Taizhou 225300, China)

Abstract

To better understand the characteristics of a bike-sharing system, we applied complex network methods to analyze the relationship between stations within the bike-sharing system. Firstly, using Gephi software, we constructed the public bicycle networks of different urban areas based on the real-time data of the Nanjing public bicycle system. Secondly, we analyzed and compared degree, strength, radiation distance, and community structure of the networks to understand the internal relations of the public bicycle system. The results showed that there were many stations with low usage of public bicycles. Furthermore, there was a geographical division between high-demand and low-demand areas for public bicycles. The usage of public bicycles at a station was not only related to land use but also related to the usage of bicycles at stations nearby. Moreover, the average service coverage of the public bicycle system was consistent with the original intention of “the first and last mile”, and public bicycles could meet different travel needs.

Suggested Citation

  • Yi Yao & Yifang Zhang & Lixin Tian & Nianxing Zhou & Zhilin Li & Minggang Wang, 2019. "Analysis of Network Structure of Urban Bike-Sharing System: A Case Study Based on Real-Time Data of a Public Bicycle System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-17, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:19:p:5425-:d:272379
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/19/5425/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/19/5425/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Faghih-Imani, Ahmadreza & Hampshire, Robert & Marla, Lavanya & Eluru, Naveen, 2017. "An empirical analysis of bike sharing usage and rebalancing: Evidence from Barcelona and Seville," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 177-191.
    2. Wang, Minggang & Chen, Ying & Tian, Lixin & Jiang, Shumin & Tian, Zihao & Du, Ruijin, 2016. "Fluctuation behavior analysis of international crude oil and gasoline price based on complex network perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 109-127.
    3. Corcoran, Jonathan & Li, Tiebei & Rohde, David & Charles-Edwards, Elin & Mateo-Babiano, Derlie, 2014. "Spatio-temporal patterns of a Public Bicycle Sharing Program: the effect of weather and calendar events," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 292-305.
    4. Gu, Tianqi & Kim, Inhi & Currie, Graham, 2019. "Measuring immediate impacts of a new mass transit system on an existing bike-share system in China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 20-39.
    5. Tsolas, Spyridon D. & Karim, M. Nazmul & Hasan, M.M. Faruque, 2018. "Optimization of water-energy nexus: A network representation-based graphical approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 230-250.
    6. Zhang, Dong & Yu, Chuhang & Desai, Jitamitra & Lau, H.Y.K. & Srivathsan, Sandeep, 2017. "A time-space network flow approach to dynamic repositioning in bicycle sharing systems," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 188-207.
    7. Klingen, Joris, 2019. "Do metro interruptions increase the demand for public rental bicycles? Evidence from Paris," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 216-228.
    8. Goodman, Anna & Cheshire, James, 2014. "Inequalities in the London bicycle sharing system revisited: impacts of extending the scheme to poorer areas but then doubling prices," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 272-279.
    9. Fishman, Elliot & Washington, Simon & Haworth, Narelle & Mazzei, Armando, 2014. "Barriers to bikesharing: an analysis from Melbourne and Brisbane," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 325-337.
    10. Legros, Benjamin, 2019. "Dynamic repositioning strategy in a bike-sharing system; how to prioritize and how to rebalance a bike station," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 272(2), pages 740-753.
    11. Park, Chung & Sohn, So Young, 2017. "An optimization approach for the placement of bicycle-sharing stations to reduce short car trips: An application to the city of Seoul," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 154-166.
    12. Liu, Hung-Chi & Lin, Jen-Jia, 2019. "Associations of built environments with spatiotemporal patterns of public bicycle use," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 299-312.
    13. J.-P. Onnela & K. Kaski & J. Kertész, 2004. "Clustering and information in correlation based financial networks," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 38(2), pages 353-362, March.
    14. Christine Fricker & Nicolas Gast, 2016. "Incentives and redistribution in homogeneous bike-sharing systems with stations of finite capacity," EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 5(3), pages 261-291, August.
    15. Martin Zaltz Austwick & Oliver O’Brien & Emanuele Strano & Matheus Viana, 2013. "The Structure of Spatial Networks and Communities in Bicycle Sharing Systems," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(9), pages 1-17, September.
    16. Xiaolu Zhou, 2015. "Understanding Spatiotemporal Patterns of Biking Behavior by Analyzing Massive Bike Sharing Data in Chicago," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(10), pages 1-20, October.
    17. Saberi, Meead & Ghamami, Mehrnaz & Gu, Yi & Shojaei, Mohammad Hossein (Sam) & Fishman, Elliot, 2018. "Understanding the impacts of a public transit disruption on bicycle sharing mobility patterns: A case of Tube strike in London," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 154-166.
    18. Fichera, Alberto & Frasca, Mattia & Volpe, Rosaria, 2017. "Complex networks for the integration of distributed energy systems in urban areas," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 336-345.
    19. Faghih-Imani, Ahmadreza & Eluru, Naveen & El-Geneidy, Ahmed M. & Rabbat, Michael & Haq, Usama, 2014. "How land-use and urban form impact bicycle flows: evidence from the bicycle-sharing system (BIXI) in Montreal," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 306-314.
    20. Wafic El-Assi & Mohamed Salah Mahmoud & Khandker Nurul Habib, 2017. "Effects of built environment and weather on bike sharing demand: a station level analysis of commercial bike sharing in Toronto," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 589-613, May.
    21. Elliot Fishman & Simon Washington & Narelle Haworth, 2013. "Bike Share: A Synthesis of the Literature," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 148-165, March.
    22. Vogel, Marie & Hamon, Ronan & Lozenguez, Guillaume & Merchez, Luc & Abry, Patrice & Barnier, Julien & Borgnat, Pierre & Flandrin, Patrick & Mallon, Isabelle & Robardet, Céline, 2014. "From bicycle sharing system movements to users: a typology of Vélo’v cyclists in Lyon based on large-scale behavioural dataset," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 280-291.
    23. Hossain, Md. Murad & Alam, Sameer, 2017. "A complex network approach towards modeling and analysis of the Australian Airport Network," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-9.
    24. Ho, Sin C. & Szeto, W.Y., 2017. "A hybrid large neighborhood search for the static multi-vehicle bike-repositioning problem," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 340-363.
    25. Shaheen, Susan PhD & Cohen, Adam & Martin, Elliot PhD, 2013. "Public Bikesharing in North America: Early Operator Understanding and Emerging Trends," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt1x26m6z7, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    26. Zhang, Xiaolei & Ren, Yibin & Huang, Baoxiang & Han, Yong, 2018. "Analysis of time-varying characteristics of bus weighted complex network in Qingdao based on boarding passenger volume," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 506(C), pages 376-394.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jonas Schmid-Querg & Andreas Keler & Georgios Grigoropoulos, 2021. "The Munich Bikeability Index: A Practical Approach for Measuring Urban Bikeability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, January.
    2. Radzimski, Adam & Dzięcielski, Michał, 2021. "Exploring the relationship between bike-sharing and public transport in Poznań, Poland," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 189-202.
    3. De Zhao & Ghim Ping Ong & Wei Wang & Wei Zhou, 2021. "Estimating Public Bicycle Trip Characteristics with Consideration of Built Environment Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-13, January.
    4. Jacek Oskarbski & Krystian Birr & Karol Żarski, 2021. "Bicycle Traffic Model for Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-36, September.
    5. Li, Chunzhi & Xiao, Wei & Zhang, Dayong & Ji, Qiang, 2021. "Low-carbon transformation of cities: Understanding the demand for dockless bike sharing in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    6. Sara Poveda-Reyes & Ashwani Kumar Malviya & Elena García-Jiménez & Gemma Dolores Molero & Maria Chiara Leva & Francisco Enrique Santarremigia, 2021. "Application of Mathematical and Computational Methods to Identify Women’s Priorities in Transport," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-43, March.
    7. Xu, Xiaohan & Huang, Ailing & Shalaby, Amer & Feng, Qian & Chen, Mingyang & Qi, Geqi, 2024. "Exploring cascading failure processes of interdependent multi-modal public transit networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 638(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Todd, James & O'Brien, Oliver & Cheshire, James, 2021. "A global comparison of bicycle sharing systems," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    2. Song, Jie & Zhang, Liye & Qin, Zheng & Ramli, Muhamad Azfar, 2021. "Where are public bikes? The decline of dockless bike-sharing supply in Singapore and its resulting impact on ridership activities," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 72-90.
    3. Namkung, Ok Stella & Park, Jonghan & Ko, Joonho, 2023. "Public bike users’ annual travel distance: Findings from combined data of user survey and annual rental records," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    4. Wang, Jueyu & Lindsey, Greg, 2019. "Neighborhood socio-demographic characteristics and bike share member patterns of use," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Mingyang Du & Lin Cheng, 2018. "Better Understanding the Characteristics and Influential Factors of Different Travel Patterns in Free-Floating Bike Sharing: Evidence from Nanjing, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-14, April.
    6. Saberi, Meead & Ghamami, Mehrnaz & Gu, Yi & Shojaei, Mohammad Hossein (Sam) & Fishman, Elliot, 2018. "Understanding the impacts of a public transit disruption on bicycle sharing mobility patterns: A case of Tube strike in London," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 154-166.
    7. Mix, Richard & Hurtubia, Ricardo & Raveau, Sebastián, 2022. "Optimal location of bike-sharing stations: A built environment and accessibility approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 126-142.
    8. Médard de Chardon, Cyrille & Caruso, Geoffrey, 2015. "Estimating bike-share trips using station level data," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 260-279.
    9. Willberg, Elias & Salonen, Maria & Toivonen, Tuuli, 2021. "What do trip data reveal about bike-sharing system users?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    10. Yuanyuan Zhang & Yuming Zhang, 2018. "Associations between Public Transit Usage and Bikesharing Behaviors in The United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-20, June.
    11. Médard de Chardon, Cyrille & Caruso, Geoffrey & Thomas, Isabelle, 2017. "Bicycle sharing system ‘success’ determinants," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 202-214.
    12. Radzimski, Adam & Dzięcielski, Michał, 2021. "Exploring the relationship between bike-sharing and public transport in Poznań, Poland," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 189-202.
    13. Hu, Yujie & Zhang, Yongping & Lamb, David & Zhang, Mingming & Jia, Peng, 2019. "Examining and optimizing the BCycle bike-sharing system – A pilot study in Colorado, US," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 247(C), pages 1-12.
    14. Song, Jie & Zhang, Liye & Qin, Zheng & Ramli, Muhamad Azfar, 2022. "Spatiotemporal evolving patterns of bike-share mobility networks and their associations with land-use conditions before and after the COVID-19 outbreak," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 592(C).
    15. Wang, Jueyu & Lindsey, Greg, 2019. "Do new bike share stations increase member use: A quasi-experimental study," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 1-11.
    16. Kyoungok Kim, 2024. "Discovering spatiotemporal usage patterns of a bike-sharing system by type of pass: a case study from Seoul," Transportation, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 1373-1407, August.
    17. Zhao, Chunkai & Wang, Yuhang & Ge, Zhenyu, 2023. "Is digital finance environmentally friendly in China? Evidence from shared-bike trips," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 129-143.
    18. Kumar Dey, Bibhas & Anowar, Sabreena & Eluru, Naveen, 2021. "A framework for estimating bikeshare origin destination flows using a multiple discrete continuous system," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 119-133.
    19. Liu, Hung-Chi & Lin, Jen-Jia, 2019. "Associations of built environments with spatiotemporal patterns of public bicycle use," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 299-312.
    20. Liu, Hung-Chi & Lin, Jen-Jia, 2022. "Associations of built environments with spatiotemporal patterns of shared scooter use: A comparison with shared bike use," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 107-119.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:19:p:5425-:d:272379. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.