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Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore

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Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore

#211

Post by s0rce »

smichel17 wrote: post #112
bkohlmann wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may be right. And SF will be a natural experiment to see which model wins out. This seems a perfect example of concentrated benefits (riders being able to park wherever) vs. diffuse costs (eyesore to most of the population). An extremely ironic possible outcome is that given the example of uber, cities may legislate away dockless bikes as non-riders lobby their representatives to minimize eyesores.

Seems like it would make sense to convert 1 in X parking spots to bike-only parking spots. Now they're off the sidewalk yet there's still the convenience of being able to park very near your destination.

That is basically what the bike docks are, most of them (at least in the East Bay) have replaced a few adjacent spots. You could simply distribute more frequent smaller racks. People believe parking is a right and anything that removes it is the end of the world so there is constant pushback.

Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore

#212

Post by darkstar999 »

kyleschiller wrote: post #53
nemild wrote: post #47

Isn't it a bit weird to have the waitlist form for such a large company be hosted by a third-party (Typeform)?

Since this entire "product" launch is a partnership + landing page, I'm guessing 0 engineers were involved. Building a form isn't hard, but recruiting an engineer, convincing them that building a form is a good use of their time, and then actually getting it "shipped" takes 100x longer at large companies than just giving Typeform your credit card.

> recruiting an engineer, convincing them that building a form is a good use of their time

Huh, you must have different experience with jobs. In my experience it's more like "do this" and you say "ok".

Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore

#213

Post by darkstar999 »

sharpercoder wrote: post #115

1) it is showing pictures of a human riding a bicycle with a helmet. Please don't promote helmets on bikes: they reduce safety (for people 12+ yo). 2) I get a 404 (NL) 3) JUMP is not linked - I don't know what it is untill I reach the bottom of the page. 4) Although it is mentioned on the page, it is not very clear this is SF only.

Browse through the images in the search results for "helmet" in /r/bicycling and you will change your mind.

https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycling/search?q=helmet&restrict_...

Any chance your statistics come from the Netherlands?

Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore

#214

Post by Bendingo »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #188
mmahemoff wrote: post #38

There'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…

OBike has been a shocking failure in Australia. Not necessarily from a business perspective, but from an environmental one. Because they aren't physically locked onto anything, it has become a game to see what stupid place you can put an OBike. Recently they fished a couple of dozen out of the Yarra River. People think it's amusing to just abuse them. Half of them have the wheel lock broken off them, so they're free…

> there is a lack of respect for property

Australians lack respect not just for (other's) property but for other people and society in general.

In my opinion, Australians on the whole are rude and selfish.

Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore

#216

Post by beedogs »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #188
mmahemoff wrote: post #38

There'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…

OBike has been a shocking failure in Australia. Not necessarily from a business perspective, but from an environmental one. Because they aren't physically locked onto anything, it has become a game to see what stupid place you can put an OBike. Recently they fished a couple of dozen out of the Yarra River. People think it's amusing to just abuse them. Half of them have the wheel lock broken off them, so they're free…

> OBike seems to work a lot better in Singapore, where people have respect for property.

Um... nope. It's just as bad in Singapore.

https://mashable.com/2017/10/05/singapore-designated-parking...

Stop blaming Australians for being fed up with companies who use littering as a business model. These shitty bikes are all over the public footpaths here and people are tired of it.

Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore

#217

Post by cialowicz »

bbarn wrote: post #203

Opinion: Bike sharing will never be more than barely above break even. I am a big bike advocate. I have 12 bikes downstairs, I've raced, and nearly every vacation I've taken in the last 15 years has been bike related. I don't even mind the e-bike trend as much as some people, and I am an uber user occasionally. I still can't see this working. People like me, who absolutely love bike commuting, we can't stop our bikes…

> Bike sharing will never be more than barely above break even.

That’s much more profitable than Uber’s current business model.

Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore

#218

Post by toomanybeersies »

Bendingo wrote: post #214
toomanybeersies wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OBike has been a shocking failure in Australia. Not necessarily from a business perspective, but from an environmental one. Because they aren't physically locked onto anything, it has become a game to see what stupid place you can put an OBike. Recently they fished a couple of dozen out of the Yarra River. People think it's amusing to just abuse them. Half of them have the wheel lock broken off them, so they're free…

> there is a lack of respect for property Australians lack respect not just for (other's) property but for other people and society in general. In my opinion, Australians on the whole are rude and selfish.

On the contrary, I find most Aussies to be helpful and friendly people. Rude, perhaps, but friendly.

I guess it depends on where you live. South Eastern and Central Melbourne is a much nicer are than Bendigo (I assume you've at least been to Bendigo given your username).

Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore

#219

Post by toomanybeersies »

beedogs wrote: post #216
toomanybeersies wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OBike has been a shocking failure in Australia. Not necessarily from a business perspective, but from an environmental one. Because they aren't physically locked onto anything, it has become a game to see what stupid place you can put an OBike. Recently they fished a couple of dozen out of the Yarra River. People think it's amusing to just abuse them. Half of them have the wheel lock broken off them, so they're free…

> OBike seems to work a lot better in Singapore, where people have respect for property. Um... nope. It's just as bad in Singapore. https://mashable.com/2017/10/05/singapore-designated-parking... Stop blaming Australians for being fed up with companies who use littering as a business model. These shitty bikes are all over the public footpaths here and people are tired of it.

The fact that the company uses littering as a business model does not excuse anyone who throws a bike in the Yarra or in the sea, that's just even worse.

Re: Uber Bike – A New Way to Commute or Explore

#220

Post by cjensen »

darkstar999 wrote: post #209
cjensen wrote: post #201

Abusing public bike racks to hold private rental inventory. The best bike shares build and operate their own racks with permission from the city. Others allow leaving the bike in any location. It figures Uber would attempt to get the benefits of a rack without paying for it.

Is finding bike parking a problem there? If not, why does it matter? "Abusing" is a strong word. How about "using them for what they were made to do without breaking any law or social contract".

Yes. It's abuse because Uber presumably have a lot of bikes they would like to inject into the system. Every bike displaces one available parking spot.

Suppose there's a small town with one bike lot at the library. Everyone keeps their bike at home except to go to the library. Does the use of those bike spots affect the public? Yes.

Would it be okay if Enterprise Car Rental used public spaces to hold their inventory? No. That's not how rental companies work.

Perhaps there is no law, but I expect that to last about ten seconds after Uber pulls this stunt.

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