Spain is one of the countries with the highest shared mobility fleet in the world. The shared
use of motorcycles, also known as moped-style scooter sharing, has spread far and wide
throughout the country at a dramatic pace in recent years. Despite its increasing popularity
and impact on urban mobility, efforts devoted to the study of its spatio-temporal travel
patterns are still scant.
Based on the analysis of GPS records of an operator present in seven Spanish cities, this
study aims to contribute to this research gap by analysing mopeds’ location patterns over
time and assessing how different dynamics influence its usage level and self-balance
potential. Our study is replicable to different cities and different shared modes, since we
propose a methodology to identify the most important origins and destinations over time
and analyse the system’s self-balance capacity based on spatial autocorrelation tools. These
insights are useful for operators to adjust and optimise vehicle distribution routes and
maintenance/recharge tasks, decreasing congestion and increasing efficiency. The results
may also be helpful for policy makers when planning and offering effective policies and
infrastructure to encourage shared mobility.
