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As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong with Us?

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Re: As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong with Us?

#21

Post by ospider »

kurthr wrote: post #11
beguiledfoil wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's unsustainable about cheap bikes?

Its not about cheap bikes. The bikes break, are destroyed, left somewhere useless/dangerous, or are stolen/confiscated. The investment money that paid for them was leveraged (an investment/loan). The income from the surplus of nearly free bikes can't pay back the investors and retain their ridership. Meanwhile, people who live near a point of interest have to deal with a massive pile of dumped (possibly broken) bikes…

technically, the newer models get GPS track devices builtin, so the chance of maintenance might be smaller than you thought.

Re: As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong with Us?

#22

Post by edoceo »

We have three vendors for $1 bikes in Seattle. Choose green, yellow or orange. Nearly zero difference. Now they are being abused (hung from poles, dumped in the lake, etc)

What's going to become of these 1000s of bikes toward our long winter, all the casual sunny-day riders are gone.

Re: As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong with Us?

#24

Post by stephengillie »

sethherr wrote: post #18
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Space taken by car-parking is typically in dedicated parking lots: out of the way and doesn't impede public rights-of-way - compare to having bicycles ridden on sidewalks and interfering with car traffic.

Also "interfering with car traffic" is silly. Bikes are traffic too and have just as much right to being in the road as cars.

Many bicyclists are afraid to be on the road, and many drivers believe roads are for aggressive car/truck drivers only. There is some basis for this, as novice bicyclists can have difficulty maintaining 25mph for miles, and many drivers are eager to prove their engine is stronger than a pair of legs.

Re: As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong with Us?

#26

Post by CaliforniaKarl »

The Bay Area already has this, in the form of Google Bikes, which sometimes (often?) find their way off-campus.

I have before come across one outside the entrance to my apartment building (the one I live in, I mean): The bike was standing on the walkway, obstructing it. I found that interesting, because the building has two underground secured area for bikes, and residents can take their bikes through to their apartments.

You may reply "Well, where was the outside bike rack?" And you are right, there is none. But, in response I bring up the Whole Foods not too far away: They have a bike parking area, and the Google bike was parked not there.

Of course, it's possible (likely?) that a Googler hadn't left it there: Someone could've taken it. Either way, I think the point still stands: You have effectively a station-less bike sharing plan, and bikes are ending up outside of where they're supposed to be.

Does Google still do 20% projects? This seems like an interesting thing to study!

Re: As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong with Us?

#27

Post by Hannah7777 »

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #20

It seems to say more about the mentality of the investing community than anything else. I'd say good ideas are scarce and/or investors aren't really able to identify them, so they wind up doing the same thing everyone else is doing. Would love to hear examples of recent investments in Chinese startups that have businesses based on something truly novel.

Yeah it`s Possible. .....An­­­yb­­­od­­­y c­­­an e­­­ar­­­n 250$+ da­­­il­­­y... Y­­­o­­­u c­­­an e­­­arn f­­­ro­­­m 6000-12000 a m­­­on­­­th o­­­r ev­­­en m­­­or­­­e if y­­­ou w­­­or­­­k a­­­s a­­­ fu­­­ll ti­­­me j­­­ob...

====http://www.bosscyber.com

Re: As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong with Us?

#28

Post by kelukelugames »

edoceo wrote: post #22

We have three vendors for $1 bikes in Seattle. Choose green, yellow or orange. Nearly zero difference. Now they are being abused (hung from poles, dumped in the lake, etc) What's going to become of these 1000s of bikes toward our long winter, all the casual sunny-day riders are gone.

I saw an adult riding one in the suburbs yesterday. Really weird to see an adult riding a bike without the full spandex gear.

Re: As Bike-Sharing Brings Out Bad Manners, China Asks, What’s Wrong with Us?

#30

Post by john61 »

Vienna had this problem decades ago when the city donated a lot of gratis bikes without any registration / GPS whatsoever. Just take the bike and leave it anywhere. They replaced the system with a station based one with registration, and a small fee after 1 hour usage. This works well.
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