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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

#171

Post by prolikewhoa »

codereflection wrote: post #114
prolikewhoa wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rode up Capitol Hill at 4:30PM every day last spring/summer, took me 10-15 minutes to get home from 2nd & Seneca and never had any safety issues. Drivers in Seattle are fairly aware of their surroundings with everyone walking randomly at all times and the city is adding new bike lanes often. Going up the hill on a Lime, Spin, or Ofo...no way -- you see those at the bottom of every hill.

I'm in Seattle as well, I have to disagree. Drivers here are mostly clueless. I know many who bike or ride motorcycles, and they have many stories to tell about the cluelessness of Seattle drivers. It's a dangerous city to ride a bike.

I would argue it's fairly safe, especially comparing to rural areas. I now live south a few miles outside of the normal Seattle walking/biking and I've already experienced a few near-death situations, but didn't have any problems in my two years downtown. This is just a personal anecdote, but I still do feel people driving Seattle downtown & on the hill are fairly aware of bikers and people walking at any time they want.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#172

Post by pbhjpbhj »

alangibson wrote: post #134
arstin wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an avid biker, and I also make heavy use of my city's shared bike program. I go more miles on my own bikes, but I ride shared bikes more often. I think you're overlooking many significant use cases for shared bikes. Here's a few: - It's well below freezing out and you just want to quickly get from your apartment to the train station, drop the bike off and forget about it. - You won't be returning to that station…

Fair enough, but the difference between a biker and non-biker is not access to a bike. The difference is that one thinks it's too physically difficult and/or dangerous and the other doesn't. Thats a problem of environment, not access.

>the difference between a biker and non-biker is not access to a bike //

Can't get planning permission for a shed in your front garden to put a bike in so if you're in a standard UK terrace you have to carry a bike through your house or keep it inside. This makes storage an utter pig and daily use is practically ruled out unless you want a house full of dirty drips and wheel marks. Richer friends have semis, so have side access or driveways.

Servicing needs tools, not too many but a few, and skill (not a problem for me). Cost is a couple £hundred for a decent bike, I can't find any second hand that appear to be working for less than £50 in my area, I think the bike thieves actually inflate prices. Those bikes are barely usable IME. £80 for a 2nd hand bike, or £100-120 for a really crappy new bike.

I love biking, can't afford the bus, but also can't really afford to keep a decent bike. With access I'd ride 3 days out of 7 as a minimum.

/anecdata

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#173

Post by prolikewhoa »

adjohn wrote: post #150
prolikewhoa wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fo…

Limebike now has electric assist bikes[1] scattered throughout Seattle which makes climbing those hills a breeze. [1] - http://www.limebike.com/electric-assist-bike

I haven't tried the Lime e-bikes yet, but I'm definitely interested because I see them all around my workplace now.

Have you tried and confirmed you can make it up the hill with little to no issues?

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#174

Post by notreallyauser »

kchoudhu wrote: post #137
tristanj wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Make transportation as reliable as running water, everywhere, for everyone."

I look forward to Uber Airlines in that case.

There's UberCHOPPER already.

Which should really be a retro children's bikeshare instead of a helicopter service.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#175

Post by kweks »

Analemma_ wrote: post #43
ggregoire wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The consumer benefits seem great How so? We have dockless bikes here (the Chinese Mobike) but it seems like you never know where to pick them up. At less with the public bikes, I know where is the closest docking station to my house.

> but it seems like you never know where to pick them up. That's a major design failure on their part then. Seattle's dockless bikes all have GPS trackers so you can see them on a map on the phone app.

Do they actually have GPS? The Chinese bikes have a dirt cheap BLE module; the App pulls GPS data from your phone.

Which is to say, when people displace the bikes "manually", the maps are no longer accurate.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#176

Post by ams6110 »

maherbeg wrote: post #34
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 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.

Sounds like what people said about Segway. Don't remember if it was Jobs, but somebody of approximately his tech reputation said "this will change the way we build cities."

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#177

Post by ams6110 »

phil21 wrote: post #74
electricEmu wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"…

I don't understand biking in Chicago or Minneapolis. What do you do when it rains, or snows, which is like 2/3 of the year? And after that it's 95 degrees and 98% humidity. There are probably no more than 30 to 45 days a year where it's really decent biking weather.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#178

Post by mattmanser »

ams6110 wrote: post #176
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.

Sounds like what people said about Segway. Don't remember if it was Jobs, but somebody of approximately his tech reputation said "this will change the way we build cities."

Yes, the trouble is, the cities are already built. Basing your business model on cities spending a metric tonne of $$$ on reworking their city isn't going to work.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#179

Post by joeblau »

djrogers wrote: post #135
joeblau wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another data point of one, but when I was in Arizona in March, I tried Ofo bikes. The fact that I could ride to exactly where I wanted to go without having to find a dock was the only reason I thought it was viable. I rode to an açaí restaurant, "docked my bike" then rode the bike to work. My office was no where near where the company would have put a dock so I would say that dockless was an extremely value feature.…

> I rode to an açaí restaurant, "docked my bike" then rode the bike to work. Sounds nice, but what do you do when someone else takes the bike while you’re eating? Whe I hear ‘dockless’ I think about the hassle of finding a bike where I want it, not the convenience of not having to drop it off...

To be honest, there were about 10 bikes within 400 feet of where I was. There just wasn't one exactly at the restaurant. I would have had to walk probably 2-5 mins to get another bike. That 2-5 mins is probably still better than where a dock would have been. It's really weird being out there because it seems like there are bikes everywhere in Tempe.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#180

Post by bfuller »

dawhizkid wrote: post #78
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…

Unfortunately there's an ordinance in my city saying you can't use an ebike without a helmet or something so the bike shares here aren't touching ebikes yet.
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