@xtaran asks:
-
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite A5. The word "bike" gives it away for me here - these systems don't often include accessible cycles and the few that do treat them as "special needs". Add to that the fact that they usually require a credit card and an app and I just haven't been desperate enough to use one yet.
I do think they can be an important component, but in the US they have been done as badly as so many other things are due to lack of sufficient protection of public interest & #BikeNite
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite oversight of the micromobility corporations.
They don't have accessible cycles, they don't sufficiently design away user behavior that discards equipment in ways that trip up disabled people just trying to get down a sidewalk, etc.
I don't think they have to be bad, but in most of the US, they're done badly. #BikeNite
-
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite A5. The word "bike" gives it away for me here - these systems don't often include accessible cycles and the few that do treat them as "special needs". Add to that the fact that they usually require a credit card and an app and I just haven't been desperate enough to use one yet.
I do think they can be an important component, but in the US they have been done as badly as so many other things are due to lack of sufficient protection of public interest & #BikeNite
@meganL @ascentale @xtaran @bikenite A5 reply: There's been a big jump in e-scooters here. I don't know if those are more accessible enough to matter or not tho'. I'd suspect they were since there's no real step through, just a small step up, less than a stairwell step but not zero.
Still have to keep balance tho'.
Public interest is what prompted the rental bike/scooter parking squares, people have actually been using them, so.
-
@xtaran asks:
Q5. What's your take on bicycle rentals, like those big bike sharing systems, but also the local ones often offering cargobikes?
Do you have the same opinion on them as on car sharing and rental e-scooters? Does bike sharing bring as many advantages to city life as car sharing?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite way too expensive in the Bay Area. Helpful in areas where transit is poor (Presidio to Van Ness comes to mind. I know there’s the shuttle but the bikeshare is fast. And very expensive). It shouldn’t cost $20 to do that
-
@xtaran asks:
Q5. What's your take on bicycle rentals, like those big bike sharing systems, but also the local ones often offering cargobikes?
Do you have the same opinion on them as on car sharing and rental e-scooters? Does bike sharing bring as many advantages to city life as car sharing?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
A5. I am much more favourable to bike sharing than car sharing, but I am positive toward both..
The base opinion is the same: sharing costs should be cheaper, will likely reduce GHG emissions. Sharing !== rentals; former involves a form of cooperative ownership/membership; true for either bicycles or automobiles.
Bike sharing/renting brings more advantages than car sharing, starting with health benefits. Bike co-ops also offer learning maintenance.
-
@xtaran asks:
Q5. What's your take on bicycle rentals, like those big bike sharing systems, but also the local ones often offering cargobikes?
Do you have the same opinion on them as on car sharing and rental e-scooters? Does bike sharing bring as many advantages to city life as car sharing?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite #BikeNite A5. These look interesting, HOWEVER, I mentally calculate the cost of the bike rentals and how many cheap bikes I could buy and fix up, so I never ever use the rentals... a few hours or days of rentals and I would have enough money to buy a cheap bike and get it fixed up. Especially in tourist areas! It's $45 to $95 a day for a rental bike at the beach here!!!
-
@xtaran asks:
Q5. What's your take on bicycle rentals, like those big bike sharing systems, but also the local ones often offering cargobikes?
Do you have the same opinion on them as on car sharing and rental e-scooters? Does bike sharing bring as many advantages to city life as car sharing?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
A5: In the towns I have biked in, bike rentals have been pretty nicely handled. They stand in their chargers when not in use.
Car sharing I haven't seen but why not? I don't see them ever being just left across the street.
E-scooters however is a menace. They seem to invite for missusage. You often find them parked in the middle of the bike lane. You can even find five just lying across the road in a bend where they are hard to see. Dangerous.
-
@xtaran asks:
Q5. What's your take on bicycle rentals, like those big bike sharing systems, but also the local ones often offering cargobikes?
Do you have the same opinion on them as on car sharing and rental e-scooters? Does bike sharing bring as many advantages to city life as car sharing?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite A5. We have both a great docked bike share here and several dockless companies. I prefer docked because they are better maintained (here). A friend used it to try out ebikes before buying one. I see the bike shares & scooters as a great way to get people out of cars, but this is in a city with a ton of tourists. #BikeNite
-
@xtaran asks:
Q5. What's your take on bicycle rentals, like those big bike sharing systems, but also the local ones often offering cargobikes?
Do you have the same opinion on them as on car sharing and rental e-scooters? Does bike sharing bring as many advantages to city life as car sharing?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite A5. I consider my bike extremely reliable, more than public transit, and shared bikes lose that huge advantage. Both usability/upkeep of an individual bike and availability when you need one. Not to mention nothing's customized to me. I customize heavily...
I think that's about the same as my opinion of other vehicle sharing systems, except I don't have a car so I do occasionally have to rent in some form. #BikeNite
-
@xtaran asks:
Q5. What's your take on bicycle rentals, like those big bike sharing systems, but also the local ones often offering cargobikes?
Do you have the same opinion on them as on car sharing and rental e-scooters? Does bike sharing bring as many advantages to city life as car sharing?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite #BikeNite A5. I think bikeshare systems are good for people who don't want to own and maintain a bicycle of their own, and for people who simply just don't have the space to keep a bicycle.
Carshares cannot be compared, since they are still cars, and the scooters are a menace, because people are careless with them. Fewer people are prone to as bad behavior on a rental bicycle as on a rental scooter, in operation or where they leave them.
-
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite #BikeNite A5. I think bikeshare systems are good for people who don't want to own and maintain a bicycle of their own, and for people who simply just don't have the space to keep a bicycle.
Carshares cannot be compared, since they are still cars, and the scooters are a menace, because people are careless with them. Fewer people are prone to as bad behavior on a rental bicycle as on a rental scooter, in operation or where they leave them.
@ascentale That being said, the rental bicycles are generally very poor quality and extremely heavy, so I wouldn't use them if I had other options. There's no real reason why the rental bikes need to be as heavy as they are, except to make them as cheap and as durable as possible.
Instead of more rental bicycles, I'd like to see better building codes that require bicycle infrastructure in homes and at destinations.
-
@xtaran asks:
Q5. What's your take on bicycle rentals, like those big bike sharing systems, but also the local ones often offering cargobikes?
Do you have the same opinion on them as on car sharing and rental e-scooters? Does bike sharing bring as many advantages to city life as car sharing?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite
A5.
I think they can be good! Done well, they can lower the bar to travelling by bike and drive adoption.I used to work for a bikeshare startup. My favourite thing ever was a bar *just* outside our service area; every morning there was a pile of our bikes in their parking lot. $1 for the rental plus the $10 out of zone fee was still cheaper than a taxi to get there, then they'd get a cab if they were not okay to ride home.
-
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite way too expensive in the Bay Area. Helpful in areas where transit is poor (Presidio to Van Ness comes to mind. I know there’s the shuttle but the bikeshare is fast. And very expensive). It shouldn’t cost $20 to do that
@skinnylatte We managed to public-private partnership so hard in SF that renting an e-bike — the most energy-efficient transport mode ever invented — costs as much as renting a whole car plus the labor of someone else driving it. Truly an accomplishment.
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite -
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite
A5.
I think they can be good! Done well, they can lower the bar to travelling by bike and drive adoption.I used to work for a bikeshare startup. My favourite thing ever was a bar *just* outside our service area; every morning there was a pile of our bikes in their parking lot. $1 for the rental plus the $10 out of zone fee was still cheaper than a taxi to get there, then they'd get a cab if they were not okay to ride home.
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite
The bikeshare I worked for used a return-to-hub model, and now it's all ebikes with charging stations; I think that helps a lot with litter.We also had a feature to pause a ride, so you could park & lock the bike to run inside a store or whatever, without getting a fine for parking it away from a hub, and it was guaranteed to be there when you come out.
Unless someone threw it in a truck, but that hardly ever happened. -
@xtaran asks:
Q5. What's your take on bicycle rentals, like those big bike sharing systems, but also the local ones often offering cargobikes?
Do you have the same opinion on them as on car sharing and rental e-scooters? Does bike sharing bring as many advantages to city life as car sharing?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite A5. I like the idea of bike shares, but also have mixed experiences with them. The ones in Florida have absolute Crotch Crushers
️ for seats on top of uncomfortably positioned handlebars. Good idea in general, but not always well executed. Especially with availability. -
@xtaran asks:
Q5. What's your take on bicycle rentals, like those big bike sharing systems, but also the local ones often offering cargobikes?
Do you have the same opinion on them as on car sharing and rental e-scooters? Does bike sharing bring as many advantages to city life as car sharing?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite
We have VeoBikes in this college town. They are pretty popular esp. students - and to the company's surprise, also working folks. They're dockless and people will strategically park them so they know they can get them.
Having them left in lots of places ... is *not* popular (so in a few weeks when they bring a mess of 'em back, people will be hating on them on Reddit).
I don't really get it
I tried one once.. coudln't *find* one anywhere near my house so used my bus pass to get to the terminal and rode one out to the college for ... like, close to ten bucks ??!? Granted it was a good four or five miles; maybe the jog on the in town campus for a few blocks makes more sense.
I want a bike that fits me, too... and, well, I like pedaling. I *do* appreciate the improved speed.
We have ZipCar, too. Cities & University had to guarantee profit within 2 years for them to try here b/c we don't fit algorithms but they turned profit in months. I subscribed for a bit but ... just didn't need a car and have learned the bus system. -
@xtaran asks:
Q5. What's your take on bicycle rentals, like those big bike sharing systems, but also the local ones often offering cargobikes?
Do you have the same opinion on them as on car sharing and rental e-scooters? Does bike sharing bring as many advantages to city life as car sharing?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite A5: I really like bike shops that offer "rent it for a week and we take that fee off the price if you buy it", especially on expensive cargo bikes.
Partly because we sold a lot of long john's that way when I worked in a bike shop
But I've also rented a couple of bikes I was interested in and ended up not buying them, so that was a couple of hundred dollars well spent ("honey, I just saved $4000"!) -
@xtaran asks:
Q5. What's your take on bicycle rentals, like those big bike sharing systems, but also the local ones often offering cargobikes?
Do you have the same opinion on them as on car sharing and rental e-scooters? Does bike sharing bring as many advantages to city life as car sharing?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite #BikeNite
A5 - "bikeshare" (rental) systems are of little value in my home city, but useful when I'm travelling and didn't bring a bike with me.
-
@xtaran asks:
Q5. What's your take on bicycle rentals, like those big bike sharing systems, but also the local ones often offering cargobikes?
Do you have the same opinion on them as on car sharing and rental e-scooters? Does bike sharing bring as many advantages to city life as car sharing?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite #BikeNite A5, part 2. I will also say that my experience of the dockless bikes in Burlingame, CA, was mostly negative, because they are apparently GPS fenced to a radius of just a mile or so, which like, what even is the point. I rode one a 2 miles away to San Mateo to go to a couple of Japanese grocers, and the power assist stopped and an alarm started sounding continuously. The bikes are unbelievably heavy and difficult to pedal without assist.
-
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite #BikeNite A5, part 2. I will also say that my experience of the dockless bikes in Burlingame, CA, was mostly negative, because they are apparently GPS fenced to a radius of just a mile or so, which like, what even is the point. I rode one a 2 miles away to San Mateo to go to a couple of Japanese grocers, and the power assist stopped and an alarm started sounding continuously. The bikes are unbelievably heavy and difficult to pedal without assist.
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite I of course, continued to ride, anyway, despite the lack of power assist and the stupid alarm trying to tell everyone I'd stolen the bike. I have zero figs to give.
Now that I know they can't be taken beyond 1 mile, I'll likely never use them again, even if I have to visit family in Burlingame, again.
-
@xtaran asks:
Q5. What's your take on bicycle rentals, like those big bike sharing systems, but also the local ones often offering cargobikes?
Do you have the same opinion on them as on car sharing and rental e-scooters? Does bike sharing bring as many advantages to city life as car sharing?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
@ascentale @xtaran @bikenite Personally i think they're great for a number if reasons but there are lots poor ways to implement them.
I like them because they are very flexible and they can allow for lots of spontaneous trips that might not be well served by transit. For instance I can take the bus into work but use a bike in the afternoon if the bus is delayed. Or I can take the bus/train somewhere and then hop on a rental bike to get to my destination. They also can enourage a lot of people to try biking who otherwise wouldn't.
I think the main issues are private dock less bike rentals that get left everywhere and cause a nuisance. Another is cities charging fees which drives up prices. The best systems are publicly subsidized usually.
There's a great video from About Here that discusses some of the economics of the bike rental services in different cities.
