The Bike Share Program

Résumé

This paper proposes and solves a modi1ed allocation problem that aims to implement the Bike Sharing Program. Here, we seek to maximize the total benefit of each bike stations while minimizing the total operational cost. Through this two-step process, various optimization methods and techniques, including both linear and non-linear programming, are used to: a) determine the most optimal bike stations among all the candidate locations, and b) decide on the most optimal number of bikes needed for each station. Considering the constraints imposed by the software used in this project, Microsoft Excel, the problem is limited to selecting four stations, while operating over a 24-hour cycle. In part a, the solver has selected stations B, G, H, and N among 14 different candidates to maximize the total benefit. In part b, the optimal number of bikes during the opening hour at each of these four stations is calculated as: 297 bikes at station B, 106 bikes at station N, and no bikes at stations G and H.