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Comment by g_sch | Hacker News Reader

I think bikeshare programs have been very successful in cities where they are monopolies and partially run by cities. My experiences with bikeshares in NYC, London, Hamburg, Berlin, and DC have all been great.

The places where they have become nuisances are largely those that have been flooded with multiple competing (usually dockless) systems, because it turns out that you don't need a large capital investment to create a lot of junk sitting idle that gets in people's way.

I think bikeshare systems should be municipally owned (or at least municipally regulated). For me, the real killer app would be one that lets me get a bikeshare in any city.

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Just on this - Hamburg in particular has a system where it's free to use for up to 30m for subscribers to the service, which is super cheap.

I believe it's run by the local authority, and at such a level its easy to explain why it's much more likely to be economically viable. The state also has to deal with the externalities associated with other forms of transport (traffic, noise, pollution etc.), as well as the health consequences of its citizens. Additionally, it's not-dockless - which I think massively reduces the nuisance on everyone else.

Yeah, Hamburg's system impressed me the most of all the places I've been, even though the quality of the bikes is not great. I went to CycleHack (bike-themed hackathon) and DB gave us a bunch of StadtRad data to play around with. It turns out the Hamburg system has the highest usage in Germany by some distance, in large part because of the free 30 minutes you're given.

I think the system is still docked though, isn't it? IIRC, you don't have to physically attach your bike to a docking station when you're done, but you are required to park within a certain (small) radius of a station to end your trip.

Exactly - it's like "flexible" docking. You have to dock it in areas, but there's some grace if there's no stations left. Seems like the best of both worlds from my perspective.

I absolutely don’t understand why cities let their streets be literred for free by dockless bikes. I really hope at least the politicians involved got a kickback :-/.

But it's okay for them to be littered by cars?

Cars are ticketed or towed when not left in specifically designated areas.

Nobody is "littering" the streets with cars. You just don't agree with the specifics of how the government has allocated the physical space resources under its control so you see it that way.

Consider the emission and noise "litter" cars generate too, I would much rather see a few scooters lying around the place than breathe in diesel fumes everday. Really it's just a temporary issue, a bump in the road to emission-free cities.

I'm not convinced it's a temporary bump, though. Space is at a premium in large cities, especially pedestrian/cycling space. As long as bikeshare companies are allowed to use this space for free and wash themselves of responsibility for the negative externalities, I don't see the nuisance and clutter going away anytime.

Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely on Team Ban Cars. But I think that recent unregulated dockless schemes have demonstrated that access to street/sidewalk space is the limiting factor for these companies, and it's sensible to restrict this access somewhat.

Perhaps cities should take simple first steps to regulate without overburdening bike/scooter shares. Portland has designated spots in the downtown core that are reserved for car shares (not any specific company but you can't park your personal vehicle there). Maybe one every 4-5 blocks. Why not do the same for bike share?

We have a docked system already but Lime scooters litter the sidewalks all over town. Why not remove a few car parking spots and require scooters be parked there? One spot could hold many scooters and keep them off the sidewalks.

This may be easier said than done, but converting roads into shared spaces may be an answer to that.

London for example are phasing in stricter low-emission areas, which should technically mean less cars will be passing through. Eventually, they could re-purpose roads so that the primary function of them is for pedestrians, bikes, bike/scooter storage etc rather than 4+ lanes of car traffic.

That is why I believe it is temporary anyway, it seems natural that cities will head this way.

Cities spend a lot of money trying to improve public transportation and reduce traffic. Dockless bikes and scooters can help alleviate those issues. So I can understand why a city might decide to take a hands off approach (at least initially) to let these programs get off the ground and prove out the concept.

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