Something I've thought about is to offer a modest reward for taking a bike from A to B, where the endpoints are determined by algorithm, or there are specified drop off points. This could be a form of income for the otherwise unemployable.

Likewise, litter of bottles and cans went way down in my home state when they created a 10 cent deposit.

In the Lime Bike app, some bike pins glow and if you ride them for more than 5 minutes you get a coupon. I assume they apply the incentive to areas with high density to encourage spreading the bikes out.

Why is that so? If people in a city move from their house to the downtown or to the nearest subway station, they will return the bicycle on their way back.

Picture a shopping mile with a train station at one end. Many people will arrive by train, do their shopping and then want to return to the train station to get back home.

You can also reduce the number of bikes needed by doing timed redistributions. Two people in the same appartment building, one leaves for work around 7 while the other leaves around 9, can share a bike if someone brings it from the nearest subway station to the local bike station at 8.