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Boston beats Silicon Valley when it comes to transit & bike sharing
11–20 of 26 posts
Re: Boston beats Silicon Valley when it comes to transit & bike sharing
#12I've used this system in Minneapolis, which is almost identical to the costs and station density here. It's OK for certain people I suppose. If you are a local, it's better to bring your own bike. If you are visiting, the fees are very high since you have to start paying extras for a few minutes overage. Overages are easy to get because the stations are usually no where near where you are going unless you are doing s…
I'm the CEO of a startup company that creates a different type of bike sharing technology, viaCycle: www.viacycle.com
While you're right that bike sharing doesn't make sense for all commuters, the idea that these systems are inefficient is actually incorrect. Yes, you have a capital outlay to set the program up - just like you do for every subway, bus system, and public road in the U.S. Often, these outlays are taxpayer funded. However, once a bike system is running, it's cheaper than almost any other form of transit. Capital Bikeshare in DC recovered almost all of it's operating expenses last year. B-Cycle Denver pulled a profit. Compare that to the T or almost any bus/metro agency in the country, which usually hover around 30-40% cost recovery.
Hubway or NiceRide might not work for your situation, but it's effective and affordable for a whole lot of people.
Re: Boston beats Silicon Valley when it comes to transit & bike sharing
#13As someone who spent a long time biking, driving, and taking public transit in Boston this is sort of laughable. A bike sharing program is a neat idea, but actually riding bikes in Boston is a terrible experience. The roads are in bad shape, there are no bike lanes, and the drivers are homicidal. Public transit in Boston certainly isn't bad, it's better than most cities I've lived in and it may very well be better th…
Boston has changed quite a lot in the past couple of years in terms of biker friendliness. The mayor has made it a big deal to put in new bike lanes and the difference is obvious. For example, on Commonwealth Ave there was a difficult spot where the road goes under Mass Ave. Instead of two lanes now there is 1 lane for cars and 1 for bikes. Similar changes have been made in other parts of the city. Much of the city is flat and the distances between neighborhoods is small. Also because there are a lot more bikers on the road now drivers are becoming much more aware of bike traffic. Between your bike, Zipcar and Relay Rides, which is everywhere, you really don't need a car.
Re: Boston beats Silicon Valley when it comes to transit & bike sharing
#14Wow it's a redbox for bikes, neat.
But unfortunately it would be destroyed and/or gross as hell in most cities that I've lived in.
Nothing wrong with owning your own bike, $150 buys a really descent bike these days.
Re: Boston beats Silicon Valley when it comes to transit & bike sharing
#15Hubway has a real-time feed of bike availability [1]. I built a little web site that shows the bike stations and T stations on a map [2], along with real-time data for both bike and T stations. Bike stations with available bikes are shown in green and ones without are red. Also, it's open source [3]. [1] http://www.thehubway.com/data/stations/bikeStations.xml [2] http://bikeboston.herokuapp.com/ [3] https://github.co…
If you like that, feast your eyes on http://bikes.oobrien.com
Re: Boston beats Silicon Valley when it comes to transit & bike sharing
#16Wow it's a redbox for bikes, neat. But unfortunately it would be destroyed and/or gross as hell in most cities that I've lived in. Nothing wrong with owning your own bike, $150 buys a really descent bike these days.
This is the same line of reasoning many people put forward in London as well (and before that Munich when I lived there). The reality is it works well. Yes the occasional bike gets vandalized, but the system provides reliable transportation for thousands of people every day.
It reminds me of the indoor smoking ban. Everywhere I live, people say "yes, that's fine in X, but it will never work here." Then it comes and it works fine.
Re: Boston beats Silicon Valley when it comes to transit & bike sharing
#17As someone who spent a long time biking, driving, and taking public transit in Boston this is sort of laughable. A bike sharing program is a neat idea, but actually riding bikes in Boston is a terrible experience. The roads are in bad shape, there are no bike lanes, and the drivers are homicidal. Public transit in Boston certainly isn't bad, it's better than most cities I've lived in and it may very well be better th…
"In general I found having a car was a pretty key part of living in Boston".
I would agree with that assuming that you live in and/or want to go out of Boston for whatever reason (work, visiting friends, etc.). I live in Beacon Hill without a car but need a cab/zipcar to visit friends in Watertown or go to the Cape for instance.
Re: Boston beats Silicon Valley when it comes to transit & bike sharing
#18I've never lived in Boston, but I've lived in SF and current live in the Valley and I have to say that SF is awesome for public transit (when it's on time) and SV is better for bike because of the bike lanes. SamTrans on the peninsula is a joke, but the VTA and CalTrain are pretty good. They don't have the extensive coverage of Muni in SF, but if you aren't willing to walk a few blocks to get from a transit stop then you need a car.
Re: Boston beats Silicon Valley when it comes to transit & bike sharing
#19Hubway has a real-time feed of bike availability [1]. I built a little web site that shows the bike stations and T stations on a map [2], along with real-time data for both bike and T stations. Bike stations with available bikes are shown in green and ones without are red. Also, it's open source [3]. [1] http://www.thehubway.com/data/stations/bikeStations.xml [2] http://bikeboston.herokuapp.com/ [3] https://github.co…
If you like that, feast your eyes on http://bikes.oobrien.com
Very cool! Are you involved with that site?
I see it's got a map showing bike share docks in London (by default, with a bunch of other cities available), with a circle for each docks whose size is proportional to the size of the dock, and a color ranging from blue (for empty) to red (for full), and the color scheme is configurable. And it's got a neat graph showing the number of bikes in the dock over time for the last 24 hours.
One minor irritation is that the graph is overlaid on top of the distance scale line (labeled "1km 1mi"), so it looks like that line is part of the graph. Also, it'd be nice if the graph were labeled by time of day rather than hours ago.
(One funny thing is the use of "scheme" even for the US pages, since as Wiktionary notes "In the US, generally has devious connotations, while in the UK, frequently used as a neutral term for projects: “The road is closed due to a pavement-widening scheme.”".)
Re: Boston beats Silicon Valley when it comes to transit & bike sharing
#20Wow it's a redbox for bikes, neat. But unfortunately it would be destroyed and/or gross as hell in most cities that I've lived in. Nothing wrong with owning your own bike, $150 buys a really descent bike these days.
This is the same line of reasoning many people put forward in London as well (and before that Munich when I lived there). The reality is it works well. Yes the occasional bike gets vandalized, but the system provides reliable transportation for thousands of people every day. It reminds me of the indoor smoking ban. Everywhere I live, people say "yes, that's fine in X, but it will never work here." Then it comes and i…
Our city, well a private group of enthusiasts, tried making a free bike loan program here and it failed horrible from theft and vandalism.
If there is a way to record people's info and/or financial responsibility, maybe that is the key.