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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

#271

Post by lmm »

btrettel wrote: post #240
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…

You make a great point with respect to an average person. But I think your experience with theft is atypical for someone as dedicated as you are. I've commuted by bike for about a decade and I've never had a bike stolen. Once I had the seat stolen off a beater I left at a train station, but that was expected. I use two locks, one a hefty cable and the other a U lock with the cable for the other wheel. My philosophy i…

> When I lived in Baltimore I'd take my bike in every night. I was told anything out at night was liable to be stolen. Now I am in Austin and that's not necessary, though I do it anyway.

Then you're not making a fair comparison. No-one is going to be taking these bike startup bikes in overnight.

I used to lock my bike on the racks my building had, but I had two or three stolen. I bought a heavy lock and a bike with non-standard bolts on the wheels... then the handlebars and saddle were stolen off it. Now I bring my bike in to my third-floor flat every time.

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

#272

Post by lmm »

skrebbel wrote: post #234
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…

> I don't even mind the e-bike trend as much as some people Taking this off topic but.. what? Why would anyone "mind" e-bikes? I recognize that you and me are probably in very different filter bubbles but everyone I know is either ambivalent to them or a fan (and owner). Here in NL bike commutes certainly increased. People used to mostly commute within their city, but now that e-bikes don't suck, I know several peopl…

Whenever an easier way of doing something people have built their identity around comes along, people who've built their identity around the hard thing see the new thing as cheating/bad.

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

#273

Post by Symbiote »

Symbiote wrote: post #190
bunderbunder wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your example actually makes me feel even worse about dockless bike sharing. If 600 people take a bike to a train station in my city and then leave them there, that would completely block access to the train station, use of the sidewalk around it, and possibly part of the street in front. I don't know if docks are an essential part of the formula - I'm a bit worried about how inherently monopolistic the dock model is…

> keeping the public right-of-way clear for public use Plenty of railway stations (plenty of streets!) surround themselves with car parking, which is a much less efficient use of space compared with bicycle parking. Here [1] is above the underground Nørreport station in Copenhagen. Not the main station, but the second busiest. Lots of designated bicycle parking, but the latent demand is probably higher than what's av…

Follow up: at my rough estimate, there are about 1,500 bicycle spaces at Nørreport Station in Copenhagen.

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

#274

Post by icebraining »

zbrox wrote: post #264
icebraining wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding the full docks, Hamburg (StadtRAD) has a nice system: you still have to go to a dock, but if it's full, you can lock it by itself and leave it there. Having previously tried JCDecaux's system in Paris and Brussels, it was a pleasant surprise.

From personal experience the deal they make with the host city is usually a win-win (for the municipality and for the citizens). The experience is great, JCDecaux gets to use some billboard locations, and the citizens get a dirt cheap public bike scheme. Here in Sweden it costs something like 8 euros per year. Yes, per year. Another interesting thing is that they have a pretty OK API https://developer.jcdecaux.com/#/…

Oh, no argument there, I quite enjoyed using Villo, and it's really dirt cheap (not 8, but still just 30€).

That said, and while it's probably built on top of that API, Brussels has an even better API: it lets you submit a geographical area (which you can design manually on their site) and get info on all stations inside it in a single request/response, and you don't even need registration: https://opendata.bruxelles.be/explore/dataset/stations-villo...

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

#276

Post by Symbiote »

txcwpalpha wrote: post #81
devit wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ofo and Mobike bikes use locks that block the wheel's rotation and can thus be parked anywhere. Seems like forcing to use an existing bike rack would be a non-starter, since the whole point of dockless bike sharing is that you can just leave the bike in front of your destination regardless of what is there. The "eyesore" factor is a trivial downside compared to the massive convenience of just being able to park the b…

It's not just a "trivial" eyesore in Dallas. It's gotten to the point where there are so many of these dockless bikes around Dallas that there literally isn't enough space on the sidewalk for them, so they start spilling onto roads, train tracks (which cause delays and accidents), blocking sidewalks/paths, etc. Dockless sounds great in theory, but in practice, humans are assholes and have no problem tossing the bike…

Do you see the irony in the second picture, where a large area has been concreted over for parking a few cars, yet people are complaining about 20 bicycles taking up two car spaces? And similarly for the first picture.

> humans are assholes

I think that's better demonstrated by the gigantic trucks (polluting, climate damaging, endangering pedestrians etc), rather than the bicycles.

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

#277

Post by salvar »

jerrycruncher wrote: post #179
kmano8 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly not more of an eyesore than parked cars lining city streets.

I'm betting you don't live in a city where three of these rental companies are operating.

You seem to have a hard time acknowledging that someone can disagree with you while fully understanding your point.

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

#278

Post by salvar »

mmahemoff wrote: post #77
mattbee wrote: post #68

I love using the Boris Bikes in London for the first time a couple of weeks back - nice big sturdy things, but oh my word the system is shakey. The app crashed a lot, then the terminals at the bike parks were "disconnected" and couldn't process a hire. But is there much room for competition in bike hire? Surely these things need massive city subsidies?

The official Boris bike app is lame, but fortunately no user of Boris bikes ever has to use it, as they have a solid API. You can get a fantastic experience with apps like CityMapper, which incorporate Boris bikes into the overall public transport landscape. They show you live maps with availability. (Hopefully they'll integrate the newer bike platforms too soon.)

What has stopped me from using the Boris bikes is how unreliable the payment system is. It seems like there's a 25% chance that any given bike station will reject my card for an unknown reason.

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

#279

Post by [deleted] »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #252
megablast wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it works badly where you live, but works well in another location you have no idea about? Thanks for your logical feedback.

If you must know, I swapped notes with my friend who lives in Singapore. People in Singapore have much more respect for the rules and following the rules, plus the consequences are more severe for breaking the rules. Meanwhile in Australia, bending and breaking the rules is a national sport. Also, the consequences for breaking the rules are much less severe. If a cop caught you throwing a bike into a tree or some oth…

[deleted]

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

#280

Post by jackpeterfletch »

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…

I think the Boris Bike system is fantastic (I commute on one everyday, !£90yr!), and actually think the dock model is best.

I think this is shown by how much they get used, every dock I go by probably sees a full rotations of bikes every 2 days!

The problem with the others, is that the allure of being able to leave your bike anywhere is instantly wiped out by never reliably being able to know where one will be, which also causes issues in distribution.

You cant efficiently redistribute bikes that don't congregate, and in order to be able to find them and not loose them, they need extra electronics, and batteries, and security features. OBikes location is bad because it trusts the location that your phone thinks its in.

A dock being full (or empty) is an relatively uncommon inconvenience for me, but the docks are extremely dense (there are 3 within 1-2 minutes walk of my office, and about 4 1-5 minutes walk from my house), and to help with this, the App they provide will show you the closest stations, as well as how full those stations are. Because of this its never more than a 5 minute issue.

My only complaints are, they're a little heavy, though the hardware is 'good enough' to compensate for this. More councils need them installed (I heard this is just an issue of councils not wanting to pay the fee just yet). And I think they should increase the first cost tier to 40mins, that would make it cost effective as a commuter for alot more people.

My regular routes are Angel->E&C (~22mins), and Angel->Primrose Hill (~15mins)

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