This looks substantially better than Hubway (the Boston bike share). Currently you need to bring bikes from one dock to another dock, and as you would expect commuting completely breaks this model. All the bikes move towards employment centers, meaning docks get saturated and there is nowhere to park near offices, and it's also impossible to find a bike anywhere in outlying areas. This pattern reverses during the evening.
Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore
141–150 of 299 posts
Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore
#142How do people who've used it feel about the dockless iteration of bike sharing? I've never had occasion to try it, but I'm very skeptical. It seems like letting people leave the bike more-or-less wherever is optimizing the end-of-ride experience at the expense of pretty much every other part of the operation aside from actually riding the bike. I don't think I'd want to start my morning commute by hunting around in a…
Hunting bikes down can be a pain.
Someone left one at the bike depot near my office and I spent 20 minutes trying to find it before giving up.
That problem should go away when there are more bikes, but as others have said here, then it might lead to crowding issues.
Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore
#143There's a lot of room for improvement over the new wave of bike startups. I had shockingly bad experiences with OBike - extremely inaccurate locations for their bikes, broken seat, zero response from support when I explained I couldn't lock the bike, and apparently no restrictions in the whole country, so bikes end up all over the country as well as in people's residences or workplaces (not to mention canals and rive…
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Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore
#144Hey Uber - your redirect rules really confuse here - it 404's. Maybe instead have it go to a page that simply says "not available in your country" or go to the American page but have an overlay asking if I want to go to a Canadian page or something - the current way just leads to bad user experience.
Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore
#145For everyone else who's getting a 404: http://archive.is/HTfZh I hope they don't handle bikes like their do their websites...
If from another country it redirects to the /country/url so it 404's if it's not available in your country. Really stupid way to do it.
Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore
#146There's a lot of room for improvement over the new wave of bike startups. I had shockingly bad experiences with OBike - extremely inaccurate locations for their bikes, broken seat, zero response from support when I explained I couldn't lock the bike, and apparently no restrictions in the whole country, so bikes end up all over the country as well as in people's residences or workplaces (not to mention canals and rive…
"Boris Bikes is still the best, but restricted to central London and can't unlock via phone." Not true! The official Santander Cycles app lets you hire a bike via your phone. Works well and saves a huge amount of time compared to using the kiosks. I agree that the current Boris Bikes are the best, though they have a new lighter, smaller bike model which feels a lot more like a Mobike/ofo to ride. Not as nice IMO.
I wish people wouldn't call them Boris Bikes, as Boris (the former mayor of London) only took credit for this cycling scheme that Livingstone, his predecessor as mayor, originally developed.
Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore
#147There's a lot of room for improvement over the new wave of bike startups. I had shockingly bad experiences with OBike - extremely inaccurate locations for their bikes, broken seat, zero response from support when I explained I couldn't lock the bike, and apparently no restrictions in the whole country, so bikes end up all over the country as well as in people's residences or workplaces (not to mention canals and rive…
I loved riding OBikes around Singapore when I was there for a week last year. They seemed to cluster in surprisingly useful places. However, the difficulty they are having with maintaining the fleet quickly became clear as I'd wander down the street to test bike after bike to find one that had working pedals, seat, and handlebars.
Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore
#148Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but how does an electric bike that can be locked anywhere get charged? Do they have people going around replacing the batteries when they get low? How long does a battery last anyway? Edit: solar panel judging off pictures of the Jump bikes?
Because it's assist - I wonder if it charges while braking
Practically no electric cycle charges via recuperation. This would only be possible on bikes that have the motor attached to the wheel (either front or back) and not for bikes that have the motor at the pedal (you’d need to have the chain fixed and transmitting power when rolling) You could also only brake with one wheel and bikes have the better brake on the front wheel due to weight distribution but powered front wheels are uncommon. You’d also need a set of sensors on the brakes, all the electronics for charging etc.
It’s usually just not worth it unless you live in a mountainous region. Bionix from Switzerland offers recuperation but it’s the only one I know.
Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore
#149Be prepared for a ton of bikes swimming around in the bay :D
Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
Recuperation alone would prolong the max. distance by max 5% or so. If you would have to recharge the battery while pedaling this wouldn't be a great experience. Together with the heavy weight of a ebike this wouldn't make any sense.
Maybe it charges under braking only.
Recuperation for ebikes is more a marketing thing than something which will extend your ride.