We got this in Boston / Cambridge / Somerville: http://www.thehubway.com/
ViaCycle (YC S12) Is A Zipcar For Bikes, Coming To San Francisco Soon
21–30 of 137 posts
Re: ViaCycle (YC S12) Is A Zipcar For Bikes, Coming To San Francisco Soon
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Call a bike in Germany is definitely a great system! viaCycle strives to improve on this by geo-fencing the bicycles when they need to be checked back into the system (and so you are no longer charged for usage). This helps maintain distribution and gives users reliable, structured locations to get bicycles, so they're not just strewn across cities.
Yea, and logistical problems like that are what gets me excited about this. In grad school I did research on a on increasing the average vehicle occupancy in cities and we took a lot of inspiration from the bike sharing programs. Have you considered offering dynamic pricing based on the likelihood that the bike will be used in the near future? I.e. riding into the city should be cheaper than riding out of the city in…
Absolutely! Dynamic pricing is something we're really excited about. It's still a young idea, but even large systems like Velib have implemented simple incentives for people who ride against traffic flow. Since our bikes always know where they are, we can be much more proactive about balancing each system.
Edit: a few of us did graduate transportation research as well, your work sounds cool. Is it published anywhere?
Re: ViaCycle (YC S12) Is A Zipcar For Bikes, Coming To San Francisco Soon
#23Interesting. I'm in Montreal, the birthplace of Bixi, which runs the London bike share program, and the upcoming NYC program as well as many others. Works fairly well, but apart from the cost the docking stations cost the city parking revenue. One major administrative cost is moving bikes around. People tend to take them downtown during the day, and out of the town at night. Even if you don't need docks, you still ha…
Definitely true. Redistribution is always a hurdle, though with viaCycle's realtime data, we can do some very cool things with incentives and pricing to help the system balance itself. Bixi takes a lot of parking spots partly because finding space for large stations is difficult. By using existing bike racks, we can often put in bikes without modifying anything. Plus, although parking is lucrative, replacing room for…
Oh, I actually meant via cycle avoids the parking revenue loss. It's a good thing.
The pricing incentives idea is awesome. A win for commuters, free marketing for your service, and free labor.
Someone would need an account for that, with payment info. Any plans to increase account uptake to serve that purpose?
Re: ViaCycle (YC S12) Is A Zipcar For Bikes, Coming To San Francisco Soon
#24Interesting. I'm in Montreal, the birthplace of Bixi, which runs the London bike share program, and the upcoming NYC program as well as many others. Works fairly well, but apart from the cost the docking stations cost the city parking revenue. One major administrative cost is moving bikes around. People tend to take them downtown during the day, and out of the town at night. Even if you don't need docks, you still ha…
Also have Bixi in Toronto. It is quite popular.
Re: ViaCycle (YC S12) Is A Zipcar For Bikes, Coming To San Francisco Soon
#25Puget Sound Bike Share ( http://pugetsoundbikeshare.org/ ) is in the early planning stages of getting something similar set up in Seattle.
Seattle is located in King County, which has a mandatory helmet law for all riders, regardless of age. Melbourne, Australia has a program with helmet laws and it has struggled to maintain ridership. This is definitely a concern. Vancouver, BC is also launching a program in a similar situation, so people are watching it closely.
There is undoubtedly a solution out there, but it may take some time to see how users adopt helmet requirements. We're definitely excited about the Puget Sound planning that is going on. I would love to see bikeshare in my hometown!
Re: ViaCycle (YC S12) Is A Zipcar For Bikes, Coming To San Francisco Soon
#26There's a company doing this peer-to-peer (like Getaround, but for bikes) called Spinlister. https://www.spinlister.com/
Re: ViaCycle (YC S12) Is A Zipcar For Bikes, Coming To San Francisco Soon
#27I love the idea, but it's doomed to failure.
I live in a city with a bike-sharing system. It's deeply unprofitable and exists only at the sufferance of the city government. There are a number of flaws. Number 1 is that people who ride bikes don't rent them, they own them. For $100 anyone can purchase a bicycle that will last indefinitely and be available 24/7/365. Number 2 is that people vandalize the shit out of bicycles. Seats will be stolen, tires slashed, bicycles thrown in the river, cables cut. You're free to go after this sort of bicycle since it has no owner - no one is going to come storming out of a nearby store and kick your ass. Crackheads will steal a bicycle seat and try to sell it for $5 to get a hit of crack - I have watched them do it. We live in a world where people are routinely electrocuted trying to steal copper from live power wires and blown up stealing gasoline from pipelines. Those bikes might as well have a sign on them saying "steal me". If even ONE of the components can be removed and sold for a few dollars...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/pariss-pedal-power...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2009/06/26/mont...
Combining high cost of bicycles, ongoing cost to repair/replace/corral wayward bicycles, and low cost of the alternative (owning a bicycle), there is just no chance that this can be a successful business. You will recall people talking about the future of electricity, as being "too cheap to meter". Well, electricity never made it that far, but time on a bicycle did. Bicycle-time is too cheap to meter.
(There may be some future for the company selling to cities or other large entities which intend to subsidize all the costs associated, but it can never be successful as a stand-alone business.)
Re: ViaCycle (YC S12) Is A Zipcar For Bikes, Coming To San Francisco Soon
#28Their pricing structure seems super confusing. There's two full paragraphs talking about it.
Thanks for the feedback. It can seem complicated because we provide the billing platform but allow our customers to set pricing. Cities typically charge a monthly or annual membership, while companies usually provide bikes to their employees for free. Depending on who's operating your local program, you usually only have to choose between a few options.
Re: ViaCycle (YC S12) Is A Zipcar For Bikes, Coming To San Francisco Soon
#29ViaCycle should sell its locking system then anyone with an unused bike can participate in the program!
That is definitely something we have discussed, once we get the unit cost down and some further miniaturization in hardware.
We'd love to hear if more people think a consumer device like that would be useful.
Re: ViaCycle (YC S12) Is A Zipcar For Bikes, Coming To San Francisco Soon
#30This reminds me some of WeBike: http://webikedoyou.com/
Regardless, glad to see some fellow Yellow Jackets doing well! Good luck guys!