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Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

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Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#71

Post by maherbeg »

JohnnyConatus wrote: post #62
hunter23 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but is the US the area where the product will have the most revolutionary impact? In my view, I would target high density cities like Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Delhi, Paris, etc. Europe and Asia seem like the most important markets for the technology rather than the US which is littered with sprawled out cities.

Also winter. Most of the dense cities in the U.S. also have significant winter weather that makes biking less ideal.

That's a problem being solved already in Scandinavian countries. It just takes education and continually improving infrastructure. The more bikers that are on the road, the safer everyone feels riding a bike, which means more bikers on the road :)

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#72

Post by SllX »

saudioger wrote: post #6

Does anyone know if going dockless increases ridership in any significant way? The consumer benefits seem great but it seems like such a nightmare to maintain compared to a docking system.

Another data point here in SF. Up until last year I had zero bike share racks installed around my apartment, and as of this year, there are still zero in >80% of the areas that I actually go to in the City (mostly in the West).

As of about a month or two ago, I have seen these Jump bikes pop up around the streets I frequent, even seeing a row of 4 of them at some point parked in a bookstore's bike rack parklet as if it were a dock made for them. I was considering trying out Jump up until this announcement, but I essentially can't use Bay Area Bike Share because there aren't any docks at any point in the city where I would ride to.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#73

Post by umeshunni »

maherbeg wrote: post #71
JohnnyConatus wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also winter. Most of the dense cities in the U.S. also have significant winter weather that makes biking less ideal.

That's a problem being solved already in Scandinavian countries. It just takes education and continually improving infrastructure. The more bikers that are on the road, the safer everyone feels riding a bike, which means more bikers on the road :)

Out of curiosity, how is this being solved in Scandinavian countries?

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#74

Post by phil21 »

electricEmu wrote: post #48
fataliss wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would take a lot of political will to do something like that though and it would take YEARS! I don't think the US is a great market (right now) for city-bikes. Outside of maybe Manhattan & SF I can't think of any major city where a bike would take you places faster/better than another way of transportation would. When you consider all the hassles that biking as a transportation comes with, I doubt this has any l…

Seattle? Portland? Minneapolis/St. Paul? You might consider bicycling while you travel more. In Seattle alone, OFO, LimeBike, and Spin are all competing. American bicycle infrastructure is behind, but it exists. I don't own a car. I get around those cities on bike without issue. It's as fast or faster than a car in many cases and I'm peddling the old fashioned way (with legs).

Minneapolis? As someone who commuted via bike "before it was cool" in Minneapolis I want to ask what you're smoking :)

The density simply isn't there, and the infrastructure is pretty horrible aside from some exceedingly small areas of the city proper, and of course the amazing bike paths (which typically are not useful for anything other than leisure). If that's what you consider a high bar for "bike infrastructure" in the US, I think the situation is pretty dire.

I moved to Chicago largely due to transit-related reasons, and the bike commute here isn't exactly stellar - but it's at least night and day compared to the average suburban-oriented city in the US.

That said, spending significant time in the Netherlands may have raised the bar too far for me to really think of any US bike infrastructure as being much more than an afterthought at best.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#75

Post by bfuller »

I live in the biggest dockless bike market currently and its an eyesore. Our corrupt government has decided not to even think about making legislation about the companies until September.

People are getting very sick of seeing them laying all around and its starting to go the way of Paris, whose people rose up against the bike share companies and got them to pull out through sheer vandalism.

Someone cut one in half and mounted it on a telephone pole the other day

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#76

Post by paulie_a »

wpietri wrote: post #7

This is a puzzle to me. Uber faces some critical issues ahead. If they can solve them, the bikes will be a rounding error. If they can't, the bike business won't be enough to save them. Why add the complexity when they could buy or build something later? I especially can't figure out why the Jump CEO would do it. The odds of their work surviving to the 10 year mark seems so small. It reminds me of something like Dodg…

I am assuming the jump CEO will be too busy sleeping on the pile of money he just made to actually care.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#77

Post by toomuchtodo »

umeshunni wrote: post #73
maherbeg wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a problem being solved already in Scandinavian countries. It just takes education and continually improving infrastructure. The more bikers that are on the road, the safer everyone feels riding a bike, which means more bikers on the road :)

Out of curiosity, how is this being solved in Scandinavian countries?

https://www.wired.com/2015/06/copenhagenize-worlds-most-bike...

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#78

Post by dawhizkid »

bfuller wrote: post #75

I live in the biggest dockless bike market currently and its an eyesore. Our corrupt government has decided not to even think about making legislation about the companies until September. People are getting very sick of seeing them laying all around and its starting to go the way of Paris, whose people rose up against the bike share companies and got them to pull out through sheer vandalism. Someone cut one in half a…

Jump's value prop is not so much being dockless but being an electric bike. You can't leave Jump bikes anywhere like other dockless bike companies (smart move on their part...I'm sure each bike is at least $1000) i.e. you actually have to lock/unlock the bike from a bike rack to use and if you don't properly lock the bike after use you're liable as a customer if it's stolen. It's an important difference IMO and means that you don't see these laying around everywhere.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#79

Post by zhoujianfu »

saudioger wrote: post #6

Does anyone know if going dockless increases ridership in any significant way? The consumer benefits seem great but it seems like such a nightmare to maintain compared to a docking system.

In Santa Monica they have the breeze docked bike share... which originally when it launched allowed you to leave the bikes anywhere for no charge (so best of both worlds).

I was an avid user and rode an average of four times a day!

A few months later, they started charging $2 if you didn’t lock a bike to the dock. This made for a pretty good a/b test of usage... I started using them only maybe once or twice a month!

I’d say dockless is about 50x better than docked.

And since bird showed up here (dockless e-scooters) I basically never use the breeze bike share anymore, despite having prepaid for a year of it.

I think the electricity probably makes it again 2x better and the scooter makes it again 2x better.

So overall, dockless e-scooters are maybe 200x better than docked bike shares!

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#80

Post by prolikewhoa »

fataliss wrote: post #46
maherbeg wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you may underestimate the impact e-bikes are going to have on major (non-car centric) cities. They'll likely reshape cities significantly as infrastructure gets improved for biking. You can get significant traffic density improvements by pushing bikes instead of cars, and e-bikes make this more accessible.

That would take a lot of political will to do something like that though and it would take YEARS! I don't think the US is a great market (right now) for city-bikes. Outside of maybe Manhattan & SF I can't think of any major city where a bike would take you places faster/better than another way of transportation would. When you consider all the hassles that biking as a transportation comes with, I doubt this has any l…

Seattle seems like it's doing well with Ofo, Limebike, and Spin however it will never be a replacement for a car, and they're 40-70lb bikes that can't make it up Seattle's hills which makes them kind of useless outside of downtown. They are used often and I see people riding them all day down by the waterfront, especially in the late spring/summer.

I unfortunately don't see them being any kind of major replacement for anything in Seattle anytime soon unless the Mayor actually puts high tolls on downtown exits -- especially since we have fairly good public transit.

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