Discrete event simulation analysis of a reservation-based, one-way car-sharing system

Abstract

We perform a detailed simulation analysis of the operational and financial performance of a hypothetical reservation-based car-sharing system that allows users to make one-way journeys. The system is characterised by a fixed set of stations; a fixed number of cars; a limited number of parking spaces at each station; and an online reservation system that makes vehicle relocations unnecessary except in the case of a cancelled reservation. A discrete event simulation model of the system is developed using C++. The model tracks the state of the online reservation system in continuous time and provides a full animation of vehicle pick-ups, journeys, and returns. Five experiments show how system performance is affected by (i) the total number of vehicles, (ii) the total number of parking spaces, (iii) the allocation of parking spaces among stations, (iv) reservations which include extra parking time, and (v) the distribution of demand among O-D pairs.