Dockless Bikeshare – The Dockpocalypse Nears

[secstate]

@cvcalhoun 168630 wrote:

I took my first ride on a Jump recently, and loved it.

I took my first Jump ride last week. I had a 12:30am arrival at Union Station after attending a concert in Baltimore. That’s way past my usual bedtime. Jump was perfect for getting my tired body and mind back to Silver Spring in short order, and at a far lower cost than a cab/Uber (I locked the bike to a post just across the DC line, a block from my apartment).

I’m ambivalent about the other dockless services, but Jump fills a clear niche, and as you mention the locking requirement means that these are far less likely to be dumped somewhere inconsiderately.

[Oldtowner]

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Take a look at this mess of abandoned bikeshare bikes in China!

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/25/chinas-bike-share-graveyard-a-monument-to-industrys-arrogance

[mstone]

@Oldtowner 168648 wrote:

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Take a look at this mess of abandoned bikeshare bikes in China!

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/25/chinas-bike-share-graveyard-a-monument-to-industrys-arrogance

Totally not a bubble. I guess it’s not any dumber to blow a billion dollars on bicycle shaped landfill instead of aeron chairs and trophy office space.

[acorn]

I just returned from visiting several cities in China. There were multiple bikeshare companies competing in each one, both dockless and with docks, and also some city-run bikeshares. They are really going to have to figure out a better solution for bike parking- bikes (and scooters) were parked everywhere and some sidewalks were practically impassible. It was also pretty dangerous for pedestrians on the sidewalks, with all the scooters and bikes using them (and apparently there is no term for “on your left!” in Chinese, nor have they heard of bells or horns.)

It was nice to see so many people riding, though, as part of their regular life.

[consularrider]

@acorn 168733 wrote:

… They are really going to have to figure out a better solution for bike parking- bikes (and scooters) were parked everywhere and some sidewalks were practically impassible. It was also pretty dangerous for pedestrians on the sidewalks, with all the scooters and bikes using them (and apparently there is no term for “on your left!” in Chinese, nor have they heard of bells or horns.)

It was nice to see so many people riding, though, as part of their regular life.

The US is the only place I’ve ridden where anyone seemed concerned about this issue although most places have a bell requirement, no one uses them.

[Lt. Dan]

If anyone has a connection with one of the new bikeshares, I’d love to help service/maintain a fleet or two…

[Henry]

@Lt. Dan 168784 wrote:

If anyone has a connection with one of the new bikeshares, I’d love to help service/maintain a fleet or two…

Some names to get you started:

JUMP/SoBi: Colin Hughes colin@socialbicycles.com

Spin: Brian No brian@spin.pm
Derrick Ko derrick@spin.pm

Mobike: Jillian Irvin jillian.irvin@gmail.com

Limebike: Maggie Gendron maggie.gendron@limebike.com
Jason Wilde jason@limebike.com

Ofo: Marisa Rodriguez-McGill marisa.rodriguez-mcgill@ofobike.com

[consularrider]

While I was in the US, two new dockless bikeshare companies appeared in Frankfurt, Byke (blue bikes) and Obike (silver and yellow). The Obikes seems to be so much litter and are left in totally obscure places.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15778[/ATTACH] Someone knocked the half fenders off this one

[Vicegrip]

@mstone 168674 wrote:

Totally not a bubble. I guess it’s not any dumber to blow a billion dollars on bicycle shaped landfill instead of aeron chairs and trophy office space.

All the carbon expelled and energy used to dig up and make iron ore and all the other materals into that pile of unused bikes.
There are places in the world where people make bike like scooters out of scrap wood and string.

We humans are odd animals.

[mstone]

@Vicegrip 168798 wrote:

All the carbon expelled and energy used to dig up and make iron ore and all the other materals into that pile of unused bikes.
There are places in the world where people make bike like scooters out of scrap wood and string.

We humans are odd animals.

yeah, for the amount that’s being blown on these bikeshare bikes you could just give bikes to anyone who wanted one. but who would go to all that trouble just for altruism?

[lordofthemark]

@mstone 168807 wrote:

yeah, for the amount that’s being blown on these bikeshare bikes you could just give bikes to anyone who wanted one. but who would go to all that trouble just for altruism?

According to a study by one of the largest operators – Mobike – their data alone shows a doubling in cycling’s modal share on the ground as more than 30 different companies have emerged in the space of a year.

Hmmm, this could be bigger than ebikes, doncha know.

It does seem to me as if the flood of bikes is part of an effort by particular companies to choke off their competitors (IE other dockless ebike companies) and they are eating losses now in order to dominate what may be a large market later on. Now do strategies like that sometimes turn out badly, sure – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble But I don’t think they think they are blowing their Renmibi.

[mstone]

@lordofthemark 168808 wrote:

According to a study by one of the largest operators – Mobike – their data alone shows a doubling in cycling’s modal share on the ground as more than 30 different companies have emerged in the space of a year.

Hmmm, this could be bigger than ebikes, doncha know.[/quote]
Sure, the global collapse of the bikeshare fad and the landfilling of vast quantities of bikes isn’t inevitable, but tomorrow’s sunrise isn’t certain either–it’s just a phenomenon with a really high probability. So, yeah, after doubling mode share (and then dividing by 30?) they just might manage to recoup all the VC by…raising prices on a captive market? increasing the mode share by two orders of magnitude? convincing cities to pay them to pave the streets with old bikes instead of asphalt? Anything’s possible.

Quote:

It does seem to me as if the flood of bikes is part of an effort by particular companies to choke off their competitors (IE other dockless ebike companies) and they are eating losses now in order to dominate what may be a large market later on. Now do strategies like that sometimes turn out badly, sure – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble But I don’t think they think they are blowing their Renmibi.

there’s a pretty fundamental difference between a business model that scales by increasing the quantity of bits and a business model that scales by increasing the quantity of bikes–one model has capital requirements which decrease on a per-user basis, the other has capital requirements which are fairly constant per-user.

[Dewey]

Article in the Post describes neighborhood advisory commissions in NW DC are unhappy and have called for an emergency meeting.

[ginacico]

Witnessed two instances yesterday of people riding IN the basket of a dockless bikeshare bike. The first was maybe a pre-teen, balancing with his butt on the basket of a Mobike while his older brother/friend pedaled. The second was a small child in the basket of a Limebike, at the doomy intersection of 15th and Constitution (really, parents?!).

[Dewey]

CaBi terms of use don’t permit alterations or additions to their bikes and the axle nuts are shrouded so can’t be made to tow a trailer but I’m unsure about the others. There could be a use case for cargo e-bikeshare if JUMP is successful.

[Author]

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