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Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

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Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#151

Post by holy_city »

alpb wrote: post #58
holy_city wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They also force you to pick up the bike from designated racks and drop-off at designated racks which is a pain in the ass. I mean it's pain in the ass when I have to move the crap from the front steps of my building or out of the driveway because people aren't courteous their dockless transport widgets. I'm alright walking a little ways to dock a bike/scooter as a user, but I'm firmly against any company or city tha…

Believe it or not, this doesn't happen in Seattle. Sure there was a month or two when people were treating bikes like shit, because they were new, but now the conventions have been established and people are more respectful. What you're worried about happens rarely in Seattle. Assuming you live in SF, I'm not sure why you're not worried more about the people peeing on your wall, tossing their shoes or random garbage…

I'm in Los Angeles where we have Lime scooters all over the place. It's not rare, it's been a daily occurrence.

I can care about more than one thing at a time. Human refuse in my streets is a problem I deal with, and so is dockless transit.

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#152

Post by g_sch »

Jonnerz wrote: post #140
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars are ticketed or towed when not left in specifically designated areas. Nobody is "littering" the streets with cars. You just don't agree with the specifics of how the government has allocated the physical space resources under its control so you see it that way.

Consider the emission and noise "litter" cars generate too, I would much rather see a few scooters lying around the place than breathe in diesel fumes everday. Really it's just a temporary issue, a bump in the road to emission-free cities.

I'm not convinced it's a temporary bump, though. Space is at a premium in large cities, especially pedestrian/cycling space. As long as bikeshare companies are allowed to use this space for free and wash themselves of responsibility for the negative externalities, I don't see the nuisance and clutter going away anytime.

Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely on Team Ban Cars. But I think that recent unregulated dockless schemes have demonstrated that access to street/sidewalk space is the limiting factor for these companies, and it's sensible to restrict this access somewhat.

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#153

Post by baby »

bsder wrote: post #80
baby wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't read this seriously knowing that cars take 1000000x more space

It doesn't matter how little space they take up when you have to step over them every morning ... My comment was that I thought that Lime stopped because they couldn't make the dockless work because the bikes wound up as trash everywhere. Your comment brings nothing to that discussion. I have no problem with these services taking up a parking space every block or two in order to put in a dock.

if you could park them on the road it wouldn't take space on the sidewalk. I do not want these docks, nobody using scooters or bikes want these docks.

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#154

Post by baby »

jMyles wrote: post #83
baby wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe

It's hard to interpret your one-word answer, but if you are saying that Europe can be held up as an example of success for this concept, then I ask you: which European city has successfully granted a legal monopoly to a single bike fleet? I have done bike / scooter fleet apps in Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Malaga, Prague... I dunno, many other European cities - and I don't think I've ever come across one with such a polic…

I'm talking about public transport.

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#155

Post by brewdad »

g_sch wrote: post #152
Jonnerz wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider the emission and noise "litter" cars generate too, I would much rather see a few scooters lying around the place than breathe in diesel fumes everday. Really it's just a temporary issue, a bump in the road to emission-free cities.

I'm not convinced it's a temporary bump, though. Space is at a premium in large cities, especially pedestrian/cycling space. As long as bikeshare companies are allowed to use this space for free and wash themselves of responsibility for the negative externalities, I don't see the nuisance and clutter going away anytime. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely on Team Ban Cars. But I think that recent unregulated dockless…

Perhaps cities should take simple first steps to regulate without overburdening bike/scooter shares. Portland has designated spots in the downtown core that are reserved for car shares (not any specific company but you can't park your personal vehicle there). Maybe one every 4-5 blocks. Why not do the same for bike share?

We have a docked system already but Lime scooters litter the sidewalks all over town. Why not remove a few car parking spots and require scooters be parked there? One spot could hold many scooters and keep them off the sidewalks.

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#156

Post by jMyles »

baby wrote: post #154
jMyles wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to interpret your one-word answer, but if you are saying that Europe can be held up as an example of success for this concept, then I ask you: which European city has successfully granted a legal monopoly to a single bike fleet? I have done bike / scooter fleet apps in Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Malaga, Prague... I dunno, many other European cities - and I don't think I've ever come across one with such a polic…

I'm talking about public transport.

Oh sure, public transit is way better in Europe.

But they didn't need to foment a monopoly for a bike fleet company to achieve better public transit, so what is the underlying point you are trying to get people to understand?

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#157

Post by 2T1Qka0rEiPr »

g_sch wrote: post #133
2T1Qka0rEiPr wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just on this - Hamburg in particular has a system where it's free to use for up to 30m for subscribers to the service, which is super cheap. I believe it's run by the local authority, and at such a level its easy to explain why it's much more likely to be economically viable. The state also has to deal with the externalities associated with other forms of transport (traffic, noise, pollution etc.), as well as the hea…

Yeah, Hamburg's system impressed me the most of all the places I've been, even though the quality of the bikes is not great. I went to CycleHack (bike-themed hackathon) and DB gave us a bunch of StadtRad data to play around with. It turns out the Hamburg system has the highest usage in Germany by some distance, in large part because of the free 30 minutes you're given. I think the system is still docked though, isn't…

Exactly - it's like "flexible" docking. You have to dock it in areas, but there's some grace if there's no stations left. Seems like the best of both worlds from my perspective.

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#158

Post by rightbyte »

jMyles wrote: post #156
baby wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm talking about public transport.

Oh sure, public transit is way better in Europe. But they didn't need to foment a monopoly for a bike fleet company to achieve better public transit, so what is the underlying point you are trying to get people to understand?

It's just one data point, but in Stockholm there were this bike sharing stands the city arranged in the centre via a procured agreement with a company. You would have to put the bike back in one of these stands after the rental. It worked quite well. No bikes laying around.

Nowadays, those are gone because of a juridical dispute over the procurement process between some bike sharing companies.

Instead there are these e-scooters littered everywhere. They are used mostly by tourists. I have no idea how the companies collect those and charge them with a profit. Most likely they don't. There were also some non city cooperation leave the bike anywhere bike sharing companies, that failed.

Maybe the main problem with communal bike sharing is that there has to be forced returns to designated end points, and only the city can "afford" (i.e. designate) public space for those places?

If you can put the bike where ever after the rental, it's just gonna be a mess.

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#159

Post by Jonnerz »

g_sch wrote: post #152
Jonnerz wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider the emission and noise "litter" cars generate too, I would much rather see a few scooters lying around the place than breathe in diesel fumes everday. Really it's just a temporary issue, a bump in the road to emission-free cities.

I'm not convinced it's a temporary bump, though. Space is at a premium in large cities, especially pedestrian/cycling space. As long as bikeshare companies are allowed to use this space for free and wash themselves of responsibility for the negative externalities, I don't see the nuisance and clutter going away anytime. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely on Team Ban Cars. But I think that recent unregulated dockless…

This may be easier said than done, but converting roads into shared spaces may be an answer to that.

London for example are phasing in stricter low-emission areas, which should technically mean less cars will be passing through. Eventually, they could re-purpose roads so that the primary function of them is for pedestrians, bikes, bike/scooter storage etc rather than 4+ lanes of car traffic.

That is why I believe it is temporary anyway, it seems natural that cities will head this way.

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#160

Post by iaresee »

shuckles wrote: post #137
iaresee wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Ford e-bike fleet got pulled because $15/month for unlimited access to e-bikes was untenable and the few, bad bikes was good cover to pull them. When they come back they'll be $3 for the first 20 minutes just like the Uber bikes in SF now.

Interesting speculation, but wrong since the new Bay Wheels pricing page shows monthly and annual memberships are still available.

It's all subject to change. The e-bikes haven't launched yet.
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