Described herein is a framework for optimal demand-based allocation. In accordance with one aspect of the framework, trip data is extracted from vehicle operation data received from one or more vehicle data devices servicing a region of interest. Vehicle demands for multiple tiles of the region of interest and mutual travel times between neighboring tiles are estimated based at least in part on the trip data. A set of candidate tiles for allocating vehicle stations may then be determined by minimizing total travel time based on the mutual travel times and vehicle demands.