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

Abstract Bike Sharing Systems (BSS) have become a key solution for urban mobility, reducing traffic-related $$CO_2$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>C</mml:mi> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>O</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> 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.