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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

#261

Post by mulmen »

macroexpanse wrote: post #258
mulmen wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not anti-VC but if you have followed the development of bike share in Seattle it seems to be more about making businesses work than about making transit work. My problem also has to do with the selective enforcement of the helmet law to enrich investors. I don’t mind if investors make money. I mind when they circumvent our laws and endanger the public to do so. I also admit to some ignorance about e-bikes which h…

Point taken. There should not be a double standard. City legislators need to have the spine to change the law. I have been following the story of bike share in Seattle. It's a shame that Pronto and Motivate lost the contract.

Did you catch the part where the city council member that wanted to bail out Pronto was an investor in Pronto? Fun times.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#262

Post by janekm »

fragmede wrote: post #256
wpietri wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been cycling in SF for more than a decade and am a SF Bike Coalition member, so I doubt I'm underestimating it all that much. But even if you are right I don't understand why Uber is eager to buy in now . If this takes off so much that Uber is obliged to get in on the action, they can wait. It strikes me as like Apple with MP3 players or smartphones or smartwatches: it's cheaper and easier to let somebody else p…

If you've been bicycling in the city for more than a decade, then you're definitely underestimating it. In that "over a decade", you've internalized the mountain of suck that bicycling is, sometimes , and have accepted that as "just how it is to bicycle in the city". Jump, in particular, doesn't have to contend with some of those. In particular, you've had to lock up your bike and still had it/parts stolen - not your…

I live in a city with ubiquitous (non-E) shared bicycles (Shenzhen), and unfortunately maintenance does become your problem... You have to go from bike to bike performing basic maintenance tests (is the brake working? Is the chain non-rattly? Seat adjustable? Anything broken?) and still sometimes end up with a non-working bike that doesn't work quite right. For the bike sharing company it's an even bigger problem (the two/three remaining companies employ an army of staff to keep moving the bikes to where they are needed and attempt some basic maintenance, literally a team on every street corner).

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#263

Post by ryanlol »

boxcardavin wrote: post #228
ianamartin wrote: post #60

Self-driving bikes probably have a lower fatality rate than cars. Maybe this gives them some breathing room to improve their AI under-the-radar, so to speak.

How do you imagine a self-driving bike would work? (serious question)

You could gyro-stabilize it :)

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#264

Post by Qwertie »

askafriend wrote: post #254
paulie_a wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first experience with an electric bike was pretty fun. I was at a stop light in front of a car and looked back to see a very angry look that I was on a bike...I cleared the intersection before they even entered it. It was a custom bike capable of 60mph

60mph capabilities on a bicycle-like frame sounds very dangerous.

And illegal in most places. Usually you are capped at 25KM/h

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#265

Post by Qwertie »

jseliger wrote: post #18
dawhizkid wrote: post #13

Awesome! Having used Jump this weekend, I wouldn't say dockless is the main value prop to me as a customer - it's the power assist that makes it feel more like a scooter than a bike. Going medium distances (1-2 miles) and up and down steep hills in SF was a breeze. If you're commuting, it's "sweat free." IMO Uber Pool/Lyft Line has gotten so slow (I'm sure Pool/Line's share of total rides vs regular X/Lyft is more th…

it's the power assist that makes it feel more like a scooter than a bike There are many comments online about how awesome electric bikes are and many skeptical responses. I think the basic divide comes down to one thing: Has the person tried an electric bike? Almost everyone who has immediately sees them as awesome. Many who haven't don't get the point. There are finally some reputable electric bikes available for ar…

I had an electric bike for a while. It worked well but it couldn't last my daily trip of 70KM so for a decent chunk of the time I was dragging along all the extra weight so I sold it and got a nice light road bike. If you are only going about 40km between charges it's perfect.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#266

Post by Qwertie »

mulmen wrote: post #233

I can't figure out why e-bikes are considered bicycles and not mopeds or motorcycles. How does this not require a drivers license, with or without a motorcycle endorsement? Is the output limited (like the 50cc moped)? Why are motorized vehicles allowed on bike lanes just because they have electric motors instead of gas? I'm also totally blown away by Seattle's disregard for helmet laws to enrich some venture capitali…

They are usually capped to 250W and 25KM/h. Anyone half fit could blast past 4x as fast on a regular bike than on an ebike. The benifit of an ebike is you get to your destination with minimal sweat and get about as much exercise as walking.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#267

Post by BoorishBears »

ebikelaw wrote: post #160
BoorishBears wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a link to hundreds of images... that being said, which parking spot? The pictures I see are knocked over bikes thrown about like a child's poorly kept toys. Contrary to what you may believe, you’re not allowed to leave a car wherever you feel like it at a given moment. You can’t even leave your own person sprawled out on whatever public surface pleases you. No idea how this is a “huge victory”

The first image that Twitter shows me for that hash tag is this one, which contains neither bikes nor failure. https://twitter.com/clair_415/status/981749790001135616

Leaving rideshare scooters in a commercial district parking space is a fail. Cars pay and have time limits.

Judging by your username and a serious hatred for cars, I'm guessing you might be letting bias cloud your judgement here...

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#268

Post by mulmen »

Qwertie wrote: post #266
mulmen wrote: post #233

I can't figure out why e-bikes are considered bicycles and not mopeds or motorcycles. How does this not require a drivers license, with or without a motorcycle endorsement? Is the output limited (like the 50cc moped)? Why are motorized vehicles allowed on bike lanes just because they have electric motors instead of gas? I'm also totally blown away by Seattle's disregard for helmet laws to enrich some venture capitali…

They are usually capped to 250W and 25KM/h. Anyone half fit could blast past 4x as fast on a regular bike than on an ebike. The benifit of an ebike is you get to your destination with minimal sweat and get about as much exercise as walking.

100kph is ~62mph IIRC. I don't think the average person could pull that off on any kind of bicycle.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#269

Post by bogomipz »

clairity wrote: post #199
bogomipz wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"los angeles is perfect for bike transport." Except that LA is a sprawl and almost nothing is close together. Maybe if you live at the beach its nice.

the LA i live in (not at the beach) allows me to walk/bike/bus/train to basically anywhere i want to go, most of which is within 5 miles of where i live. when i need to go farther, i can take a lyft or rent a car. but you gotta get over that perception of sprawl to realize how great LA is for multi-modal transport.

>"but you gotta get over that perception of sprawl to realize how great LA is for multi-modal transport"

multi-modal transport? You mean the bus? The bus in LA is a joke. Nobody wants to take the bus in LA - it takes way to long to get anywhere. The metro is notable in how little area it covesr. I think this map illustrates this well:

https://media.timeout.com/images/103334943/image.jpg

So what does that leave? Cars. You yourself even mentioned ""Lyft and renting a car." Owning a car, renting a car and calling a car are all car-centric modes of transport.

And LA doesn't have a perception of sprawl it is actually sprawl.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#270

Post by baud147258 »

hunter23 wrote: post #49
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.

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.

Paris has already had a few experiments with dockless bikes, while the docked biked offered by the city are not available because of global replacement done by the lowest bidder.

Since the dockless bikes did not ask for permission of the city, they're now forbidden and the few I've seen were in a bad state.

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