An Improved Iterated Local Search Algorithm for the Static Partial Repositioning Problem in Bike-Sharing System

In this paper, a single-vehicle static partial repositioning problem (SPRP) is investigated, which distinguishes the user dissatisfaction generated by different stations. The overall objective of the SPRP is to minimize the weighted sum of the total operational time and the total absolute deviation from the target number of bikes at all stations. An iterated local search is developed to solve this problem. A novel loading and unloading quantity adjustment operator is proposed to further improve the quality of the solution. Experiments are conducted on a set of instances from 30 to 300 stations to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed customized solution algorithm as well as the adjustment operator. Using a small example, this paper also reveals that the unit penalty cost has an effect on the repositioning strategies.