Toward User-Based Relocation Information Systems in Station-Based One-Way Car Sharing

Car sharing is an important mobility service to approach urban and suburban mobility problems. It is a sustainable means of transport because it lowers the emissions of each car sharing customer by substituting privately owned vehicles by joint used ones. Nevertheless, car sharing still has to fully unfold its potential and has to overcome certain obstacles. For instance, it is necessary to substitute operatorbased relocation by user-based relocation, which is more sustainable and cost-efficient. In this paper, we propose a framework and algorithms for implementing user-based relocation in the context of stationbased one-way car sharing. Through a simulated car sharing system with 34.418 rental data we were able to demonstrate, that user-based relocation has the potential to increase the number of accepted rentals. Implementing the proposed system would increase service quality, providers’ profits and the positive environmental impact of car sharing.