Integration of electric pedal assisted bikes in a bike-sharing system

In the past years the urban mobility problems have increased; the vehicle sharing systems are one of the possible solutions to reduce the mobility problems. Accordingly to these needs, the bike-sharing systems are becoming very popular, mostly in the cities grown on a flat area. Even if there are a lot of systems using traditional bikes, there are no systems using electric bikes. This paper presents a system architecture which allows the integration of commercial pedal assisted bikes in a vehicle sharing system; its characteristics do not require the redesign of the vehicle. After presenting the system architecture, the paper describes the design of the device allowing the integration. Some hints about the use of the same approach to lightweight electric vehicles are provided in the end.