Dockless Bikeshare – The Dockpocalypse Nears

[jctonett]

My wife insists they are the “twenty-teens” version of abandoned shopping carts…

[Steve O]

@PeteD 169845 wrote:

It’s spreading…

http://www.bfmtv.com/mediaplayer/video/dans-la-seine-par-terre-dans-les-bacs-a-fleur-a-paris-les-velos-en-libre-service-se-retrouvent-n-importe-ou-1015629.html

I do not understand French, but I think I can figure this out:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]15927[/ATTACH]

[Drewdane]

I saw a pack of DBS bikes loitering in the Shoney’s parking lot last night, smoking cigarettes and wearing leather jackets!

[Judd]

The Washington Times had an article that was mostly a reporter slapping a byline on a press release from Lime Bike: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/dec/21/dockless-limebike-reports-16600-riders-in-dc-with-

Some interesting tidbits:
1. Lime Bike has had ~16,600 individual users in DC.
2. Average trip distance is 1.1 miles and 8 minutes.
3. There have been ~45,000 individual trips
4. Most of the trips are during commute hours

Some factual errors:
1. Bikes are stated as having no gears. Spin is the only bike that has no gears.
2. Stated there are four DoBis operating in DC. Missed OFO.
3. Conflated Capital Bikeshare with Dockless Bikeshare (not really a factual error, just confusing)
4. Stated data was not available on other systems (CaBi publishes data quarterly on it’s website and regularly publicizes monthly trip data – it appears that they weren’t asked)

[cvcalhoun]

@Judd 169970 wrote:

The Washington Times had an article that was mostly a reporter slapping a byline on a press release from Lime Bike:

Seems up to the usual standards of the Washington Times.

[Judd]

Spin bike has now deployed 3 gear bikes in DC.

They dropped a bunch of them at the World Bank.

It also appears that the World Bank has a special parking zone for Spin bikes.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@Judd 169970 wrote:

2. Average trip distance is 1.1 miles and 8 minutes.

Strava KOMs will remain mostly intact. Thank goodness.

[cvcalhoun]

@Judd 169970 wrote:

2. Average trip distance is 1.1 miles and 8 minutes.

I’ve probably single handedly brought that length of trip down. If I want to go a long distance, I can use my own bike (which I always have at my office during working hours anyway). So in many instances, I’m using the dockless bikes just to get to the nearest Metro station, or to meet a friend for lunch or drinks a few blocks from my office.

[Judd]

Takoma Park has signed deals for four dockless companies to operate according to this article: https://patch.com/maryland/takomapark/dockless-bikeshare-expands-takoma-park

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cvcalhoun]

@Judd 170019 wrote:

Takoma Park has signed deals for four dockless companies to operate according to this article: https://patch.com/maryland/takomapark/dockless-bikeshare-expands-takoma-park

Silver Spring has some operating there, too. https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/bikeshare/ Bethesda doesn’t officially, but dockless bikes keep showing up there anyway. I think the only company that really cares about the geographical limits is Jump, because their people have to regularly find the bikes to charge them. The others may not be officially licensed to operate in Bethesda, but they have no financial incentive to stop people from leaving them in Bethesda or renting them from there.

[Oldtowner]

Crochetedy Georgetown residents not taking well to dockless bikeshare. One resident encouraging others to “call 911 immediately when you see someone using the bikes, and to snap photos and videos of all individuals using the orange, green, yellow, and now red bikes.”

http://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/17217/dc-police-urge-residents-not-to-call-911-on-bike-share-users

[cvcalhoun]

@Oldtowner 170149 wrote:

Crochetedy Georgetown residents not taking well to dockless bikeshare. One resident encouraging others to “call 911 immediately when you see someone using the bikes, and to snap photos and videos of all individuals using the orange, green, yellow, and now red bikes.”

http://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/17217/dc-police-urge-residents-not-to-call-911-on-bike-share-users

This crotchety cyclist hopes that the Georgetown residents who do this will get convicted of abusing the 911 service.

[secstate]

The Economist has the best write-up of the history of dockless that I’ve come across:

“The first bicycles were freed on July 28th, 1965. On the previous night Provo, a Dutch anarchist group, had put up flyers proclaiming that “the asphalt terror of the motorised bourgeoisie has lasted long enough”. A few dozen people had gathered at the bottom of the Spui, in central Amsterdam, along with some reporters. There were also some police; they thought the Provos were troublemakers.

“Roel van Duijn and Luud Schimmelpennink started painting three black bicycles white. ‘The white bicycle is the first free communal transport,’ as their flyer put it. Once so transfigured, the bikes would simply be left on the streets; to make them free for all to use, the flyer said, ‘the white bicycle is never locked.’ And that, it turned out, was a problem…”

https://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21732701-two-wheeled-journey-anarchist-provocation-high-stakes-capitalism-how

[jctonett]

As much as I love cycling and encourage others to ride, I have to say, the DBS bikes are becoming a new type of urban litter. I live in Silver Spring, and some days I count more than a dozen in the two blocks from house to the first main bus stop at Wayne and Sligo Creek. I rather doubt the users leave the bikes like this, but most are on their sides, heaped together, like large, metallic, Bud Lite cans.

They seem to cluster near bus stops. Perhaps this is where they graze?

[cvcalhoun]

Now let’s see if the Georgetown NIMBY crowd complies.

https://wtop.com/dc/2018/01/dc-police-residents-dont-dial-911-seeing-bikeshare-users/

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