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Lyft Follows Uber Into Bike-Sharing Lane, Buying Owner of CitiBike

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Re: Lyft Follows Uber Into Bike-Sharing Lane, Buying Owner of CitiBike

#131

Post by huntertwo »

jsemrau wrote: post #129
ams6110 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copenhagen in the summer is about 75° F and fairly low humidity. Ok for a comfortable cycle to work. Many midwest American cities reach mid 90's temp and high humidity. If you cycle to work you'll need a shower when you get there, assuming you don't get heatstroke on the way. Cycling is not viable transportation in many areas, and you can't cherry pick a place like Copenhagen and use that to support a claim that it w…

You could argue that in winter its getting below 40 in Copenhagen and in you midwest American cities it might not?

In almost every Midwest city it is getting below 40 in the winter with a lot of snow.

Re: Lyft Follows Uber Into Bike-Sharing Lane, Buying Owner of CitiBike

#132

Post by saalweachter »

CydeWeys wrote: post #102
crazygringo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in NYC I haven't really seen any scooters ever, whereas Citibike is everywhere.

They haven't launched here. We barely even have dockless bikeshares (and even then they're not allowed in the exclusive Citibike coverage area). We're a rough regulatory environment.

My assumption is that New Yorkers are too cool for scooters to take off. Maybe in Brooklyn, ironically.

Re: Lyft Follows Uber Into Bike-Sharing Lane, Buying Owner of CitiBike

#133

Post by stevesimmons »

usrusr wrote: post #94
Spivak wrote: post #37

Can someone explain the economics of services like this? I just get the feeling that these bike-sharing services are running on a good sales pitch and a market which seems obvious but isn't really there. There are probably four or five competing services in my city and yet I have never actually seen a single person actually riding them. There are certainly people riding bikes but it's always their own bike. Complicat…

Bike share meshes with public transit in a way that personal bikes does not. The concept of dual personal bikes on both ends of a regularly taken transit leg, but it comes worry a maintenance/trash problem surprisingly similar to dockless spam. European train stations are surrounded by reefs of semi-abandoned "away side" bikes.

In the Netherlands this is solved by periodically tagging bikes locked up outside stations. Any bikes still with tags a week or two later are presumed abandoned and removed.

Re: Lyft Follows Uber Into Bike-Sharing Lane, Buying Owner of CitiBike

#134

Post by majormajor »

karthikb wrote: post #54
majormajor wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Point to point" is a huge part of the appeal of cars over the existing public transportation network. We dedicate a ton of space to enabling point to point for cars, and barely any for bike docks and the like. Dockless scooters are the most effective thing I've seen yet - in very limited areas, so far - at starting to combat the limitations of the public transit network compared to the road/sidewalk/parking lot netw…

And yet in a congested city, the closest car parking may be 2-3 blocks. Not a huge advantage over bike docks.

Two to three blocks is much less than the amount of walking I would have to do as part of a typical within-3-mile local trip using either local bike-sharing bikes or public transportation. That would be 6-10+ blocks of walking, and a transfer or two (in the case of bus or rail). So I'll drive or lyft, because that's a pretty big convenience/flexibility advantage, especially if I'm making multiple stops.

But Birds are increasingly tempting because I usually see one within one to two blocks of my apartment.

Re: Lyft Follows Uber Into Bike-Sharing Lane, Buying Owner of CitiBike

#135

Post by drb91 »

madeofpalk wrote: post #66
zethraeus wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW I was just in london and saw a bunch of people riding their own Mi scooters in the street. (That's the same scooter Bird uses.)

Sure, and people smoke week or break the speed limit despite the legality.

Err, why is it illegal? They're more than fast enough to keep up with bike traffic in the city, especially if there are dedicated lanes.

Re: Lyft Follows Uber Into Bike-Sharing Lane, Buying Owner of CitiBike

#136

Post by drb91 »

aventrix wrote: post #5

How does the popularity of bikes compare to electric scooters? Anecdotally, I see a lot more Bird and Lime S scooters flying around than I do bicycles these days - and we do have docked bicycle and Lime bikes and Ofo options available in my city. Having tried many of these services, I find the electric scooters to be the most enjoyable, although the electric bikes are quite fun too and can be a better experience if y…

The bikes are super heavy; they require docking, which somewhat removes the purposes of using them to get from point to point in the first place. I don't know many people who aren't already cyclists who use it.

Off hand I'd say scooters are much more filling a vacant market, whereas the bike sharing competes more with uber or lyft in the first place.

Re: Lyft Follows Uber Into Bike-Sharing Lane, Buying Owner of CitiBike

#137

Post by drb91 »

protonimitate wrote: post #17

How easy/possible would it be to re-purpose the existing bike docks into electric-scooter/ebike docks? I have a sense with all the city/public push back against Lime bikes/ofo/bird etc. the big players are looking to soak up turf in case the regulations prevent dockless from expanding.

This only makes sense if there's essentially a dock on every block. I'm all for this, but I don't see my friends who drive relishing the 5% reduction in parking or whatever.

Re: Lyft Follows Uber Into Bike-Sharing Lane, Buying Owner of CitiBike

#139

Post by Fricken »

sushid wrote: post #119
ebikelaw wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No room for buses, trains, or regular bicycles? The nice thing about a regular bicycle is the unlimited range. Whereas the nice thing about an electric bike is the speed. My personal hierarchy is more like this: 0-1 miles: walk 1-10 miles: e-bike or bus or lyft 10-100 miles: regular bike or train > 100 miles: car

No buses for me. I've given it a try many times but in SF, unless you're on a popular commuting line, it's filled with crazy, aggressive homeless people. I've given up traveling via bike after losing my wheels to theft. My friend got his u-lock + loop locked bike's seat stolen while grabbing food to go at the Westfield food court around lunchtime. > 10-100 miles: regular bike or train SF to San Jose is 55 miles. To t…

Am normal person, can confirm. Normal people don't use public transit because normal people don't use public transit, therefore normal people shouldn't use public transit.

Re: Lyft Follows Uber Into Bike-Sharing Lane, Buying Owner of CitiBike

#140

Post by shmerl »

deminature wrote: post #138
shmerl wrote: post #50

Hopefully they'll expand it to all areas in NYC.

Dockless bikes are getting rolled out to non-Citibike service areas: https://ny.curbed.com/2018/5/24/17389414/nyc-dockless-bike-s...

Interesting, but 200 bikes sounds like a drop in the ocean. How will it actually work without docking?
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