An improved model to efficiently transport YouBike

For energy conservation and reduction of carbon emissions, an eco-friendly public transportation system is indispensable in a modern country. Since a bicycle itself is a low-population and low-energy-consumption vehicle, many cities, including Taipei, have built a convenient public bicycle sharing system as an extension of the metro system to follow the trend. YouBike, a corresponding system in Taipei, has become more and more popular and pervasive recently. In practice, a commuter can rent a bicycle in a rental station. Once some rental station is out-of bicycles, it will automatically inform the management system and the system has to transport bicycles from other station or depository to supply it. From the viewpoint of commuters, they would like to obtain a bicycle as soon as possible; however, from the perspective of a manager, not only the utilization of the system, but also the transportation cost, is critical to maintain the operation. Hence how to address the online optimization problem and balance the bi-criteria issue is a hot topic. In [6], Li and Liu borrowed the k-server problem [9] to deliver a theoretical model to address this problem. Nonetheless, their model has some drawbacks that are insufficient to approach the real case. In this paper, we add new elements to improve their model and formally define the YouBike transport problem. Moreover, we consider this problem in a uniform space to further explore its inner properties and solution hardship. Finally, some indications for future works are also presented.