Ebikes!

[lordofthemark]

@Riley Casey 194524 wrote:

As much as I liked the Jump bikes ( before Uber bought them ) I suspect that the viability of rental E bikes is limited. The bikes require too much hands on care in charging and maintenance to be sustainable. Even worse in the long run is that someone will sooner or later realize that the external plastic battery packs are worth about $500 and vandalism / theft will likely go much higher than the kids hot-wiring a couple of scooters phenomena. This grousing is more about seeing CaBi put more resources in to filling in the blanks in their current dock locations. Large parts of the city and close in burbs are underserved by CaBi as it is.

The locations are determined and the stations installed by the jurisdictions. There have been delays in NoVa as the locales wrestle with VDOT (funding pass through) interpretation of fed mandated procurement regs.

[Dewey]

WTOP report a new feature of CaBi+ ebikeshare bikes will be a dockless option to end your trip anywhere in the operating area…when they eventually return.

[cvcalhoun]

@Dewey 197189 wrote:

WTOP report a new feature of CaBi+ ebikeshare bikes will be a dockless option to end your trip anywhere in the operating area…when they eventually return.

I can’t wait! The cost of Jump bikes is now ridiculous. Plus, when I take a Jump bike, I’ve got to stop just inside the city line, then take an Uber home to Bethesda. A CaBi allows me to get within a mile of my house, even without the dockless option, and maybe closer if they allow dockless.

[Dewey]

Lyft today finally returned ebikeshare to NYC’s CitiBike fleet with fixes to address the faults that led to their withdrawal last year including a new battery supplier, a new front Sturmey Archer drum brake, and the hub motor is moved to the rear so CitiBike state it is a single-speed (also reported on Reddit) hopefully it’s not geared too high or this might prematurely wear out the motors climbing hills. Lyft simply modified the previous design Bay Wheels/San Francisco ebikes by adding a disk brake to replace the front roller brake. It’s unclear which model CaBi will be getting in due course, but I hope it’s not the NYC design as I liked the Enviolo CVP gearing on the original CaBi+ ebikes.

[IMG]https://www.bicycleretailer.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_primary_image/public/images/article/1.png?itok=lXa8Wp1G[/IMG]

Pricing: CitiBike Annual Members pay an extra $0.10/minute, capped at $2 for rides 45 minutes or less starting or ending outside Manhattan. Non-Members pay $0.15/minute. Reduced Fare Bike Share Members pay $0.05/minute, capped at $2 for rides 45 minutes or less starting or ending outside Manhattan.

[Dewey]

DDOT press release reports Lyft will add 1,500 CaBi+ ebikes to the DC fleet starting “this spring” with a $1 per trip surcharge, a lock enabling riders to end a trip by returning to a dock or dockless locking the ebike to something, and revising the CaBi app to enable riders to unlock a CaBi+ ebike parked outside a dock https://ddot.dc.gov/release/improved-e-bikes-return-capital-bikeshare-spring

No details in the press release about the design, but DDOT’s tweet includes a picture showing a CaBi+ branded ebike similar to the San Francisco Bay Wheels bike, with front hub motor and front disk brake, which would have gears, so fingers crossed https://twitter.com/DDOTDC/status/1230890697143857153?s=20

[Yule]

The announcement of the ‘Pause’ (end?) of Bike Angels contains in part a reference to eBikes, and has me worried about changes to the CaBi system which the eBike (re)introduction is being used to push through.

Here is the email sent off today, in part:

As you probably know, the Bike Angels program was created to give bike riders (like you!) an opportunity to earn rewards for improving the balance of bikes and docks in the Capital Bikeshare system. The changing nature of Capital Bikeshare with different types of bikes and parking methods, means changes to the operational challenges of “balancing” bikes and docks across the system. We know that riders will have an important role to play here, but the current Bike Angels system — with points tied to specific stations — won’t make the most sense.

The writer is Collin, the Bike Angels program manager for many cities but mainly focused on New York, where he works at Motivate HQ (I think). He doesn’t use the word eBikes there, but it’s clear that’s what he is talking about (“different types of bikes and parking methods”).

[Dewey]

Lyft in the news for the wrong reasons, raising prices of San Francisco Bay Wheels ebikeshare rides to $2 to unlock and 20c per minute, source https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Lyft-raises-prices-on-e-bikes-triggering-an-15084541.php#article-comments

[Dewey]

Capital bikeshare have launched an updated app ahead of their ebike deployment. CaBi confirm the new app can unlock both docked classic bikes and dockless parked ebikes using a QR code, source https://twitter.com/bikeshare/status/1234142487943372801?s=20

Update: tried the app this morning to undock a CaBi classic bike, scanned the QR code printed on top of the head tube and it released the bike from the dock, returned the bike to another dock the usual way and that ended the trip in the app, and I got a text message confirming the bike was returned.

[Dewey]

Arlington County just refused an E-bikeshare operating license to a bikeshare company because their ebikes lack a speedo required under County regulation. Somebody please inform Lyft/Motivate their upcoming CaBi+ ebikes will need a speedo to operate in Arlington.

[dasgeh]

@Dewey 198962 wrote:

Arlington County just refused an E-bikeshare operating license to a bikeshare company because their ebikes lack a speedo required under County regulation. Somebody please inform Lyft/Motivate their upcoming CaBi+ ebikes will need a speedo to operate in Arlington.

@dasgeh 199001 wrote:

I don’t think [the assertion that the speedometer requirement applies to bikeshare] is correct. The only requirement for a speedometer is in Article X of section 14 (scroll way down in the pdf of just word search), which only applies to a “Mirco-Mobility Businesss”, which is defined as:

[which] clearly doesn’t apply to private ownership and doesn’t seem to apply to CaBi.

[Judd]

@Dewey 198962 wrote:

Arlington County just refused an E-bikeshare operating license to a bikeshare company because their ebikes lack a speedo required under County regulation. Somebody please inform Lyft/Motivate their upcoming CaBi+ ebikes will need a speedo to operate in Arlington.

I know of one individual in the microbility business who was super salty about the Cabi e-bike is kind of an end around of the dockless rules.

[Dewey]

The Post reports Uber sold JUMP ebikeshare to Lime Bike in early May. “Customers will still have access to electric Jump bikes and scooters in the Uber app, but Lime will run the operation.” The Popville blog reported JUMP bikes are temporarily unavailable to rent in the Uber App during the transition. Another Post article reports Lime is currently only able to operate in 20 of the 120 global cities in which it was operating before the pandemic.

[Dewey]

Uber decided to scrap the 20,000 JUMP electric Bikeshare fleet in the US

https://bikesharemuseum.com/20000-jump-bikes-are-going-to-die/

https://twitter.com/crismoffitt/status/1265444495488880649?s=21

[ginacico]

@Dewey 201115 wrote:

Uber decided to scrap the 20,000 JUMP electric Bikeshare fleet in the US

Further justifying my stance to never, ever use Uber. “UBER has reminded us that they are friends to no one but themselves.”

[LhasaCM]

@Dewey 201115 wrote:

Uber decided to scrap the 20,000 JUMP electric Bikeshare fleet in the US

https://bikesharemuseum.com/20000-jump-bikes-are-going-to-die/

https://twitter.com/crismoffitt/status/1265444495488880649?s=21

I think it’s still an open question as to how much of their fleet is being scrapped vs. redeployed by Lime. (No debate that it’s “WAY TOO MANY” but both parties claim that it’s not all of them.) https://streetjustice.substack.com/p/the-truth-uber-trashes-jump-bikes

[Author]

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