The Design of a Decision Support System for Computation of Carsharing Pricing Areas and Its Influence on Vehicle Distribution

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Carsharing offers an ecologically friendly alternative to private car ownership, helping alleviate urban mobility problems and pave the way to a sustainable future for transportation. However, several obstacles in carsharing service management must be overcome in order to take full advantage of its potential as a mainstream mode of transportation. Among others, substantial barriers to involvement include challenges of vehicle supply and demand management. Against this background, in this article, we develop decision support system for the construction of pricing areas via a design science research approach. The pricing areas influence user rental behavior by adding a fee for returning vehicles in low-demand areas and granting a discount for returning vehicles in high-demand areas. To evaluate the output of the decision support system, a set of constructed pricing areas was tested for one year in a real-world car sharing system. The results reveal that pricing areas reduce the need for vehicle relocations while facilitating better vehicle availability.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)819-833
Number of pages15
JournalIEEE Transactions on Engineering Management
Volume70
Issue number3
Early online date27 Oct 2020
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2023
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85096149862

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

Keywords

  • Information technology, Intelligent transportation systems, Road transportation, Software design, Transportation, Transportation industry