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Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

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Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#81

Post by vajaya »

I wonder why bike sharing is still a thing in business world. Hasn't this business venture been proved to be a fiasco in China, where user base is larger in magnitude, operation cost is residual and virtually no regulation friction, compared to the u.s.? Why do lyft, uber and others think it is viable(profitable) in the u.s.?

Another thing beyond me is although the business model/development of this kind seems to be bound to fail, why they are still chased by enormous amount of capital.

My cynical suspicion is these so call tech start ups are just instrument of a grand new ponzi scheme in which a bunch of investors use borrowed money(from banks, insurance company and the likes) to set up a start up and increase the value of it(manufacture hype to justify the inflation along the way) and the sell to public, which is mainly pension funds, 401k, government backed institutions and so one, that is, ordinary folks.

I hope someone would correct me and shed some light on this matter.

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#82

Post by fuzz4lyfe »

vajaya wrote: post #81

I wonder why bike sharing is still a thing in business world. Hasn't this business venture been proved to be a fiasco in China, where user base is larger in magnitude, operation cost is residual and virtually no regulation friction, compared to the u.s.? Why do lyft, uber and others think it is viable(profitable) in the u.s.? Another thing beyond me is although the business model/development of this kind seems to be…

My thoughts exactly. Tech companies going public will be the credit default swaps of the 20's, mark my words.

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#83

Post by jMyles »

baby wrote: post #74
closeparen wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A widespread belief that transportation should not be competitive might explain why it functions so poorly. How is this different from banning all but one automaker?

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 policy.

Is this a normal European thing?

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#84

Post by ravenstine »

bsder wrote: post #55
ravenstine wrote: post #19

That is until Lyft gets bored with it and axes it like Lime did to their bikes. Now my town is vacant if any rental bikes, despite their promise of fixing our "last-mile" problem to our train station.

> That is until Lyft gets bored with it and axes it like Lime did to their bikes. These seem to be be "docked". Wasn't Lime's problem that they were "dockless" and wound up being trash everywhere?

That might have been an issue, but Lime switched to the e-scooter game and probably found out that the bikes costed more in maintenance. The scooters last months before they break and probably need relatively simple parts for repair, but bikes probably broke constantly and it may have been hard to get enough people to repair them.

You could be right, though, and I'm only guessing.

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#85

Post by woodruffw »

vajaya wrote: post #81

I wonder why bike sharing is still a thing in business world. Hasn't this business venture been proved to be a fiasco in China, where user base is larger in magnitude, operation cost is residual and virtually no regulation friction, compared to the u.s.? Why do lyft, uber and others think it is viable(profitable) in the u.s.? Another thing beyond me is although the business model/development of this kind seems to be…

My 0.02c as a Citi Bike (NYC's bikeshare) subscriber: I wouldn't be surprised if there's a modest profit to be made in bike sharing, at least in NYC. I know quite a few people with a yearly subscription (either personally or via their employer), and I would consider paying for one personally now that I've experienced their convenience. I don't know how much money Citi Bike/Motivate actually makes here, although AFAIK they don't receive any public subsidies (other than free use of public space).

OTOH, I don't think that the e-bike/scooter companies will ever be profitable. I wouldn't be surprised if the people running those companies are equally cynical.

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#86

Post by thehappypm »

joering2 wrote: post #51

I recently read that Uber/Lyft keeps even 75% of money for themselves. I wonder if there is an opportunity for third large ride-sharing app where business model would be based on bidding and company would keep much lower fee, just to cover overhead. So you want to go from point A to B, all local drivers are contacted and they have 45 seconds to bid who would charge less. Requester would see how much sorted by less $…

You're getting downvoted because this is both a bad business idea, and a bad product idea.

Uber and Lyft have proven that drivers and riders don't want to think particularly hard. They want a magic button that either a) makes a car show up or b) feeds them customers.

As for the business side, there's no good reason to think that this would even cut costs on Uber's side -- they still need to maintain all of their lobbying costs, their server and engineer costs to maintain the bidding app, their marketing costs, etc.

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#87

Post by jessriedel »

untog wrote: post #60
jMyles wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I agree that the city has the moral authority to grant a monopoly on such a concept. I like Lyft just fine and I especially applaud their efforts to expand into ebike-to-transit. But I also have a little trouble feeling sorry for a company that feels it has suffered a loss because its out-and-out regulatory capture scheme didn't pan out as successfully as it hoped.

You don't really have to feel sorry for them, you just have to recognise that they are entitled to what their contract says they are. If you're against an exclusivity agreement (which actually makes a lot of sense when establishing a transportation network) then your complaint should be with the government, not Lyft.

jMyles specifically is objecting to whether the city has the moral authority to sell that exclusivity. If I sell my neighbor's lawn chair to a passerby without my neighbor's permission, the passerby doesn't have a claim on the chair even though it's my ill behavior that was the cause. (This is true regardless of whether the passerby knew who the true owner was.)

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#88

Post by ravenstine »

baby wrote: post #77
bsder wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That is until Lyft gets bored with it and axes it like Lime did to their bikes. These seem to be be "docked". Wasn't Lime's problem that they were "dockless" and wound up being trash everywhere?

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

That's because cars are way more useful. They have a much longer range than bikes or scooters, are fueled more easily, carry cargo, transport multiple people at once, can run on both gas and electric, have air conditioning, stereo systems, safety features, etc. Bicycles are obsolete in every way and aren't practical for most commuters. You bet cars take up 1000000x the space of bikes.

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#89

Post by jessriedel »

cgati wrote: post #49
alpb wrote: post #43

I was in SF this week and had a chance to try this out. They have 0 (zero) e-bikes despite their app has a column to list the count. 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. On the other hand JUMP has a fully e-bike fleet, but bikes were impossible to come by. I parked a JUMP bike that had full battery. An hour later I came back and the…

The Ford e-bike fleet got pulled due to some bikes experiencing too strong a braking force on the front wheel. They've been working on a redesigned e-bike and that will be coming soon.

> some bikes experiencing too strong a braking force on the front wheel

Was that actually confirmed or just alleged?

Re: Lyft Takes over Ford GoBike

#90

Post by g_sch »

vajaya wrote: post #81

I wonder why bike sharing is still a thing in business world. Hasn't this business venture been proved to be a fiasco in China, where user base is larger in magnitude, operation cost is residual and virtually no regulation friction, compared to the u.s.? Why do lyft, uber and others think it is viable(profitable) in the u.s.? Another thing beyond me is although the business model/development of this kind seems to be…

I think bikeshare programs have been very successful in cities where they are monopolies and partially run by cities. My experiences with bikeshares in NYC, London, Hamburg, Berlin, and DC have all been great.

The places where they have become nuisances are largely those that have been flooded with multiple competing (usually dockless) systems, because it turns out that you don't need a large capital investment to create a lot of junk sitting idle that gets in people's way.

I think bikeshare systems should be municipally owned (or at least municipally regulated). For me, the real killer app would be one that lets me get a bikeshare in any city.

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