Parking Behaviour Analysis of Shared E-Bike Users Based on a Real-World Dataset - A Case Study in Dublin, Ireland

Abstract

In recent years, an increasing number of shared E-bikes have been rolling out rapidly in our cities. It therefore becomes important to understand new behaviour patterns of the cyclists in using these E-bikes as a foundation for the novel design of shared micromobility services as part of the realisation for next generation intelligent transportation systems. In this paper, we deeply investigate the users' behaviour of shared E-bikes in a case study by using the real-world dataset collected from the shared E-bike company, MOBY, which currently operates in Dublin, Ireland. More specifically, we look into the parking behaviours of users as we know that inappropriate parking of these bikes can not only increase the management costs of the company but also result in other users' inconveniences, especially in situations of battery shortage, which inevitably reduces the overall operational efficacy of these shared E-bikes. Our work has conducted analysis at both bike station and individual level in a fully anonymous and GDPR-Compliant manner, and our results have shown that up to 12.9% of shared E-bike users did not park their bikes properly at the designated stands. Different visualisation tools have been applied to better illustrate our obtained results.

U-Park: A User-Centric Smart Parking Recommendation System for Electric Shared Micromobility Services

“…As a result, promoting the uptake of ESMS has become strategically important for many European countries to achieve a sustainable and low-carbon transport system [5]- [8]. In Ireland, for instance, the government has established a clear pathway to step up the adoption of electric vehicles for transportation decarbonisation in the next decade with an ambitious target to reduce 51% of transport emissions by 2030 1 .…”

“…However, current ESMS suffer from critical design issues, such as lack of service integration and not being user-centric, which potentially significantly impedes mass adoption. In fact, some recent work has demonstrated that ESMS can create various burdens in modern traffic operation and management, including inappropriate parking challenges due to users' behaviours [1], charging issues due to lack of infrastructures [9], accessibility challenges due to lack of holistic planning and scheduling [10], as well as transaction challenges due to lack of speed and transparency [11], [12]. Typically, these challenges are dealt with either partially or individually without a holistic view of system-level design and optimization, with the result that one problem may be addressed for a given aspect but more problems can be created for others.…”

“…The current paper extends our previous work in a number of ways. In particular, the work in the present paper builds on [1], [29], [30]. In [1], we investigated the parking behaviour of shared E-bike users based on a real-world dataset in a case study in Ireland.…”

“…In particular, the work in the present paper builds on [1], [29], [30]. In [1], we investigated the parking behaviour of shared E-bike users based on a real-world dataset in a case study in Ireland. The results revealed that up to 12.9% of shared E-bike users did not park their bikes properly at the designated stands, which is clearly a challenge to be addressed.…”

“…A key operational challenge in ESMS is related to parking, particularly how to ensure a shared vehicle has a parking space when the user is approaching the destination. For instance, our recent study illustrated that up to 12.9% of shared E-bike users in Dublin, Ireland cannot park their E-bikes properly due to a lack of planning and user-centric guidance [1]. To address this challenge, in this paper we propose U-Park, a user-centric smart parking recommendation system for ESMS aiming at making personalised recommendations to ESMS users by considering a given user's historical mobility data, current trip trajectory and parking space availability.…”