Integrated travel path guidance for metro-bikeshare users considering system operational budget costs using smart card data

Metro-bikeshare integration has emerged as a major sustainable mode of transportation for medium and long-distance travelers in various cities. To enhance the satisfaction of integrated metro-bikeshare users and improve the efficiency of urban multimodal transportation systems, this paper proposes integrated path guidance strategies for metro-bikeshare users, tailored to the diverse preferences of individuals. Using the actual smart card data collected from Nanjing, China, a path optimization model is developed to maximize integrated benefits within the metro-bikeshare multimodal network. These benefits include enhancing the overall travel utility of users, reducing the dispatching cost of shared bikes and realizing the load balance of passenger flow. The results show that an 8.89 % increase in total travel utility for all users though the optimization of travel path for 12.51 % of metro-bikeshare users, coupled with an average dispatching frequency of 1.18 times for each transfer node. Furthermore, tailored combined travel path optimization strategies are suggested for “first kilometer”, “last kilometer”, female, male, regular and non-regular users. These findings are helpful for governments and enterprises to formulate personalized path schemes and corresponding path guidance services for metro-bikeshare users.