Dockless Bikeshare – The Dockpocalypse Nears

[Judd]

@huskerdont 165585 wrote:

I saw on your Strava feed that the solar panel had a sticker saying the maximum load was 5 kg. That’s like telling people how they can break it, in case they couldn’t figure it out themselves.

11 pounds is not a lot. I’d assume that the actual weight capacity is more though, just like the expiration date on food isn’t really when it becomes unsafe to eat.

[Emm]

@Judd 165587 wrote:

11 pounds is not a lot. I’d assume that the actual weight capacity is more though, just like the expiration date on food isn’t really when it becomes unsafe to eat.

That seems like a really low weight capacity for a basket. A gallon of milk is roughly 4 kg, so those baskets are not going to be great for running errands. Even a box of kitty litter, or just some milk and a few cans of soup could quickly bring you over the limit.

[baiskeli]

This is a bit like Car2Go, where CaBi is Zipcar.

If they can avoid theft and other hijinks, it could work great.

[Dewey]

@huskerdont 165579 wrote:

I saw that Baltimore’s bike share program was temporarily shutting down because of vandalism and theft.

Also Manchester, England for the same reasons, the rascally tykes.

Here’s a WTOP article on Mobike launching in Washington, DC, and another article from the Post states there are 200 of these bikes in DC.

[Emm]

I just hope DC can compete with Seattle for the title of “City with the most creatively parked dockless bike share bikes”…

[bobco85]

@Emm 165614 wrote:

I just hope DC can compete with Seattle for the title of “City with the most creatively parked dockless bike share bikes”…

I haven’t encountered any amphibious or suspended dockless bike share bikes yet, but I have seen them scattered in sometimes the most random of places, i.e. places that don’t necessarily seem to be a destination (side of road next to train tracks).

[Dewey]

Just spotted the first mobike I’ve noticed on GW campus parked near the big giant head of George Washington at 23rd and I St near the entrance to Foggy Bottom metro station.

[consularrider]

We’ve got two dockless bikeshare programs in Frankfurt, and there are always a few parked outside our housing compound. The DB (Deutsche Bahn – German train system) one gets a lot of use. That said, I have yet to use it since I have four bikes parked in my storage room.

[eminva]

These were scattered throughout Farragut Square this morning:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15492[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15493[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15494[/ATTACH]

[Subby]

Frictionless bikeshare is the best bikeshare. I hope this is here to stay.

[ginacico]

I tried Mobike this morning, and met worktheweb for coffee at Swing’s. It disappeared and I had a little trouble finding another one, so I used CaBi to get to work.

This evening I’ll try and grab a LimeBike to ride to happy hour, just to complete the trifecta.

I think Mobike and LimeBike are private, profit-making companies. Versus Capital Bikeshare, which is government-sponsored public transportation. The dockless systems may have their place, but I’d hate for that to reduce CaBi’s great success in DC. Heck, they did all the work getting bike sharing to be accepted here, and they’re still growing.

[Dewey]

Test ride report from GGW

[Judd]

@ginacico 165675 wrote:

The dockless systems may have their place, but I’d hate for that to reduce CaBi’s great success in DC. Heck, they did all the work getting bike sharing to be accepted here, and they’re still growing.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this and it will be interesting to see how things progress. My inkling is that CaBi will be fine. For the regular commuter, CaBi seems like it will still be more reliable. You’ll mostly be able to count on a bike being available at the same place every day. If you commute by CaBi every day, then it’s also more price advantageous. For the tourist folks, it’s very apparent that CaBi is a bikeshare system. If you’re in a group, you’re likely to have enough bikes available for everyone at the same place. You don’t need to download an app to use it, so the barrier to use is very minimal.

My hope is that dockless bikeshare creates enough of a competitive pressure on CaBi to make it a better system, particularly by creating pressure to lower operational costs and by identifying areas where there is demand for more stations.

[Drewdane]

I came across a LimeBike today during my lunchtime walk and decided to ride it back to work. Perfectly nice bike, but the seatpost needed to be longer. I’m barely 5’8″ and with the post fully extended I still wasn’t getting full range of motion.

To their credit, they immediately answered my email, saying this was a known issue and that they’re already looking into fixes.

[mstone]

@Drewdane 165678 wrote:

I came across a LimeBike today during my lunchtime walk and decided to ride it back to work. Perfectly nice bike, but the seatpost needed to be longer. I’m barely 5’8″ and with the post fully extended I still wasn’t getting full range of motion.

To their credit, they immediately answered my email, saying this was a known issue and that they’re already looking into fixes.

non bike people always ride around with their seats several inches too low, so depending on their testers it might have never come up

[Author]

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