Dockless Bikeshare – The Dockpocalypse Nears

[cvcalhoun]

I love the fact the headline says it’s a “growing problem,” but the body of the article says it was common in the first months but has dropped significantly since then.

[Dewey]

Arlington announces it will follow DC and permit dockless bikes/scooters/ebikes during a trial starting in September 2018.

[Dewey]

Ofo has laid off most of its US workforce and is withdrawing from several cities, as yet it is unclear if it will continue to operate in the District. Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-bike-sharing-giant-ofo-to-shut-most-u-s-operations-1531959910

[DSalovesh]

(Can’t read the article, sorry.)

Ofo and Mobike are probably not going to have permits continued after the current pilot, so they’d be fools to keep operations in DC going.

That leaves only the operators owned by or partnered with whatever we’re calling those apps these days: Social Bicycles (Jump and non-motorized) is owned by Uber, Lime (bikes, e-bikes, scooters) has partnered with Uber, and Motivate (traditional docked municipal partnerships like CaBi) is owned by Lyft.

Maybe my tinfoil hat has slipped a bit, but this is starting to look like an unhealthy amount of control of for-hire transportation modes in the hands of just a couple of companies for whom the actual job of transporting people is secondary.

[musclys]

Ofo is out: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2018/07/24/dockless-bike-share-company-ofo-is-the-first-to-pull-out-of-d-c/?utm_term=.38bdcc99edd7

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18159[/ATTACH]

[cvcalhoun]

@DSalovesh 179723 wrote:

(Can’t read the article, sorry.)

Ofo and Mobike are probably not going to have permits continued after the current pilot, so they’d be fools to keep operations in DC going.

That leaves only the operators owned by or partnered with whatever we’re calling those apps these days: Social Bicycles (Jump and non-motorized) is owned by Uber, Lime (bikes, e-bikes, scooters) has partnered with Uber, and Motivate (traditional docked municipal partnerships like CaBi) is owned by Lyft.

Maybe my tinfoil hat has slipped a bit, but this is starting to look like an unhealthy amount of control of for-hire transportation modes in the hands of just a couple of companies for whom the actual job of transporting people is secondary.

I’m disappointed Mobike isn’t continuing. It for a long time had the most bikes in my area. LimeBike seems to have mostly abandoned bikes in favor of scooters. And if only those companies you mentioned survive, we’re back to docked bicycles (which almost never work for me) or electric bicycles (which are great for climbing big hills, but overkill — and often unavailable — for a mile or two on the flat).

[LhasaCM]

@cvcalhoun 179747 wrote:

I’m disappointed Mobike isn’t continuing. It for a long time had the most bikes in my area. LimeBike seems to have mostly abandoned bikes in favor of scooters. And if only those companies you mentioned survive, we’re back to docked bicycles (which almost never work for me) or electric bicycles (which are great for climbing big hills, but overkill — and often unavailable — for a mile or two on the flat.

…or maybe dockless CaBi’s. (I saw on the Twitter that in NYC, Citi Bike – operated by Motivate – is taking over ofo’s place in the upcoming Bronx pilot, which will be alongside Jump.)

[infinitebuffalo]

@cvcalhoun 179747 wrote:

LimeBike seems to have mostly abandoned bikes in favor of scooters.

Based on their appearance at the DC BAC a few weeks ago, I suspect this is seasonal. It sounded like they expect to wind down the scooters and bring out more bikes as the weather gets colder.

(I don’t recall the particular numbers, but apparently the scooters get significantly more use, on a rides per day per vehicle basis—like 5 for the scooters vs less than 1 for the bikes…—so as long as people are going to use the scooters, especially while they’ve got such a low unit cap imposed by DDOT, it’s worth it for them to have more scooters out.)

Assuming, of course, that they’re here that long…

Sent from my LG-K550 using Tapatalk

[dasgeh]

This may interest some: https://nacto.org/2018/07/11/shared-active-transportation-guidelines/

[lordofthemark]

So to be clear, this means no Ofo or Mobike in Arlington either, and no chance of them coming to Alexandria? I ask both as an advocate (I believe Alexandria needs to open to dockless prior to next summer’s metro shutdown) and personally (I want to clean up the apps on my phone).

Sounds like Spin bikes will remain, as well as LimeBikes, Jump, and of course CaBi.

[lordofthemark]

@DSalovesh 179723 wrote:

(Can’t read the article, sorry.)

Ofo and Mobike are probably not going to have permits continued after the current pilot, so they’d be fools to keep operations in DC going.

That leaves only the operators owned by or partnered with whatever we’re calling those apps these days: Social Bicycles (Jump and non-motorized) is owned by Uber, Lime (bikes, e-bikes, scooters) has partnered with Uber, and Motivate (traditional docked municipal partnerships like CaBi) is owned by Lyft.

Maybe my tinfoil hat has slipped a bit, but this is starting to look like an unhealthy amount of control of for-hire transportation modes in the hands of just a couple of companies for whom the actual job of transporting people is secondary.[/QUOTE]

Oh, to be young again

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railroad_classes#Class_I

[Dewey]

@dasgeh 179783 wrote:

This may interest some: https://nacto.org/2018/07/11/shared-active-transportation-guidelines/

Re: NACTO guidelines document, on Page 9 the section titled “Small Vehicle Standards for the Shared-Use Context” describes limits localities could apply to regulate shared-use bikes, e-bikes, and e-scooters. The 15mph speed limit is less than the 20mph speed limit required to meet the CPSC & Class 1 e-bike definitions. Presumably the companies would need to demonstrate compliance in order for these shared-use vehicles to be operated on sidewalks and bike paths/trails?

[ginacico]

Mobike has already refunded my (very small) investment in their pilot program. Ofo has also promised a refund within 30 days, and even has a message that pops up in their app explaining their departure plans. It’s fair and decent of them, I’m sad to see them go.

Aside from Jump and Limebike, who got propped up by carshare companies, Spin appears to be sticking around until further notice. And scooters are ubiquitous.

As this great social experiment shakes out, GGWash is proposing some new regulations to support up to 20,000 shared bikes and scooters. Yeah, really, 20k plus.

If DC decides to go all-in with transportation alternatives, it won’t happen without commitment to infrastructure and policy changes.

[infinitebuffalo]

@ginacico 179882 wrote:

As this great social experiment shakes out, GGWash is proposing some new regulations to support up to 20,000 shared bikes and scooters. Yeah, really, 20k plus.

It’s not like they’re plucking this number out of thin air:

Quote:

The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP)’s Bikeshare Planning Guide compared shared bike systems worldwide and found that the right ratio in a city is 10 to 30 bikes per 1,000 residents…. For DC, that would mean up to about 21,000 shared bikes (docked and dockless).

The ITDP Guide also notes that

Without a cap, operators could flood cities with large quantities of bikes to capture market share. However, if the fleet cap is set too low, the system will never achieve reliability because it will be too difficult to find a bike. A balance needs to be struck between providing bikeshare service and overcrowding public space with infrequently used bikes.

And, of course, even the high end of most proposed or suggested ranges would still pale in comparison to the number of automobiles in the District:

By comparison, there are…around 240,000 cars registered to DC residents at any given time. Accounting for Maryland and Virginia drivers, there are even more cars present every day in DC.

[Judd]

I signed the petition for 20k dockless bikes and scooters in DC. I imagine that it’s going to be messy and people are going to complain even more than in the pilot but that’s a good thing. Once bikes are permitted it will be hard to undo and we’ll be more likely to get infrastructure. I hold no hope that any of it will be in place beforehand.

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