A dynamic bike sharing module for agent-based transport simulation, within multimodal context

Abstract Traffic generates congestion and air pollution, especially in cities. These are among the reasons why environmentally friendly solutions are promoted. Bike sharing (bs) is intended to strengthen cycling and public transport. Nevertheless, scarcely any transport models at the present time consider cycling or bs, in either detail or holistically. We thus made a start here and reproduced the processes of cycling and modelled station based bs to depict e.g. station choice, renting and returning processes in detail. We included the interaction with other means of transport, especially bs and public transport. Moreover we provided a within day rescheduling for bs trips, as agents might not find a bike or parking. To minimize such cases, we implemented a choice probability, with which agents only start their bs trip, if sufficient bikes or parking spots are available. In general, such models can bring monetary, environmental and temporal benefits, since they can show potential for improvement without great cost.