The vehicle relocation problem in car sharing systems: Modeling and simulation in a Petri net framework

Abstract

The paper proposes an user-based solution for the vehicle relocation problem in car sharing systems. In particular, the impact of a mechanism of economic incentives based on a real time monitoring of vehicles distribution among the parking areas is assessed. We consider three different operative conditions that are described by the Unified Modeling Language and modeled in a Timed Petri Net (TPN) framework. In order to show and compare the effectiveness of the adopted management strategies, the real case study of an electric-car sharing system is evaluated and simulated in the TPN environment. The results underline how the proposed solution leads to an improvement of the overall system performances, by highlighting at the same time the limits of such a strategy. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.