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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

#91

Post by wukerplank »

bunderbunder wrote: post #73

How 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…

As a citizen I HATE dockless rental bikes. No wonder city councils start to throw them out again. Worst case they clog up bike stands, worst case they clog up entries to parks, get thrown into rivers, etc. It seems they attract the least disciplined kinds of people.

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

#92

Post by ariwilson »

cpsempek wrote: post #44

First of all, this is great. The thing that bike share programs lack IMO is the tech and logistics savvy of a company like uber. In Santa Monica and the west side of LA we have an electric scooter service called Bird, which was started by a ex-lyft/uber excec, and it has been successfull from an outsider's perspective. The most convenient aspect of this service is that you can drop off the scooter anywhere you want,…

Bird seems destined to fail to me. I've seen these things left all over the place, e.g. they're supposed to be in Santa Monica but I've seen them all the way in Manhattan Beach (>12 miles south). How are they supposed to get charged and placed in convenient locations?

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

#93

Post by mmahemoff »

bunderbunder wrote: post #73

How 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…

If you think about where mobile tech is 10 years from now, I think the direction makes sense. It's likely most people will be using some form of augmented reality + voice assistants, in which case locating a bike won't be very cumbersome.

I think we should/will end up with lots of "virtual" parking areas, e.g. one on every block. It would be similar to the virtual commuting "bus line" type routes Uber and Lift are creating, which establish some day-to-day stability, but can easily be updated every few months according to demand. Virtual parking areas would keep things less cluttered and easier to locate, but can still be distributed closely together.

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

#94

Post by tobltobs »

kyleschiller wrote: post #49
longerthoughts wrote: post #34

I wonder how much this ends up cannibalizing their existing business (imagining it would be a small fraction) vs attracting new customers away from walking and public transit.

Also possible that bikes are more likely to survive a post-SDC world.

Or this is plan B if it becomes clear that SDC is a pip dream.

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

#95

Post by foolfoolz »

bunderbunder wrote: post #73

How 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…

dockless is the only future of bike share. the one way fan out of morning and then night commute ensures transport hubs will never have enough docks to scale.

if 600 ppl take a train to a station with 20-50 bike slots there’s no way you will have reliable access. i think most of your comments are FUD. people are inherently good

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

#96

Post by mpermar »

This can be great if they start putting bike racks within hotel properties, which would be great for them too as there is a) easy access to people that do not have vehicles, and b) hotel properties use to be "reasonably" safe for parking.

In any case as someone mentions here, it can canibalize its own business we hotel residents tend to use Uber-like services a lot.

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

#97

Post by ISL »

bunderbunder wrote: post #73

How 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…

Dockless bikes in Seattle, in my experience, are a net win.

The downsides really are only haphazardly-parked bikes and large aggregations of bikes in popular destinations. When those aren't problematic, it's great.

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

#98

Post by icebraining »

whoami_nr wrote: post #71
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…

>move bikes around in vans The irony !

It's not ironic, it's just smart. Carrying just the bikes is much more efficient than carrying humans, since they're lighter and slimmer (a single van can carry dozens) and don't have fixed schedules, so they can be transported outside of rush hour.

Some places have incentives for users to ride bikes to certain docks, but it's not enough to fully balance it.

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

#99

Post by dmix »

AndrewWarner wrote: post #16

I rode a Jump bike to work today. It's a magical experience. Just as I struggle a bit to get up a hill, the bike's pedal assist kicks in and helps me out. Ditto for when I'm stopped at a red light and need to get riding fast. The best part of these bikes are the fact that when I get to my destination, I can lock them up to the closest pole or bike rack and just go.

What does 'dockless' bike sharing mean in practice. Where do you pick up the ebikes? From the previous rider directly? How does charging the bikes work (or do they self charge via friction)?

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

#100

Post by cpsempek »

ariwilson wrote: post #92
cpsempek wrote: post #44

First of all, this is great. The thing that bike share programs lack IMO is the tech and logistics savvy of a company like uber. In Santa Monica and the west side of LA we have an electric scooter service called Bird, which was started by a ex-lyft/uber excec, and it has been successfull from an outsider's perspective. The most convenient aspect of this service is that you can drop off the scooter anywhere you want,…

Bird seems destined to fail to me. I've seen these things left all over the place, e.g. they're supposed to be in Santa Monica but I've seen them all the way in Manhattan Beach (>12 miles south). How are they supposed to get charged and placed in convenient locations?

Their solution currently is to have people drive around at night and corral the scooters, bring to a charging warehouse and then redistribute in the morning. Quite an expensive process that they need to streamline. They are attempting to crowdsource the charging by paying people $10 a night to charge a bird at their home (or anywhere)
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