Pearclustering: a novel clustering algorithm with an application to bike mobility

Bike Sharing Systems (BSS) have become a key solution for urban mobility, reducing traffic-related CO2 emissions. However, managing BSS poses challenges that require data-driven solutions, particularly for understanding their global behavior and forecasting their evolution. These dynamics arise from...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Márquez Saldaña, Francisco, Aranda Corral, Gonzalo A., Borrego Díaz, Joaquín
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:idus________::5c4122b0c8057b4d97283fe35088a3f3
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/184183
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12065-025-01062-6
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Clustering analysis
Machine-learning in mobility
Bike sharing platforms
Artificial intelligence in engineering
Descripción
Sumario:Bike Sharing Systems (BSS) have become a key solution for urban mobility, reducing traffic-related CO2 emissions. However, managing BSS poses challenges that require data-driven solutions, particularly for understanding their global behavior and forecasting their evolution. These dynamics arise from the interaction among users, companies, dock stations, and city policies, influenced by sociological and infrastructure-based factors. This paper proposes a novel clustering methodology to analyze BSS data across multiple cities. By clustering station-day tuples instead of aggregating statistics, our approach captures seasonal patterns, special events, and weekday/weekend differences. Using Pearson Correlation as a distance metric, it remains robust across different station sizes and system scales. Trained on three European BSS and evaluated across six cities from 4 different countries, our model uncovers meaningful patterns such as work, residential, and leisure areas, as well as seasonal changes even in systems not used in the training process. These insights enhance BSS management, expansion, and decision-making, with applications in monitoring, anomaly detection, and demand prediction.