This Bikesharing Program Lets You Lock Your Bike Anywhere
fastcoexist.com
fastcoexist.com
It was cheap, easy and the bikes were of good quality, plus you can't beat the flexibility of grabbing one of those to meet a friend on the other side of the city.
Great to see that the concept spreads further and further.
) They define a general area in their TOS/contract. You're not supposed to leave it outside of the city limits, for example. You can leave, of course, but need to drive back into the city limits to drop it off.
The bike lock is controlled from a central point. Also, as they have a GPS, they also propose an iPhone/Android application which can give you the nearest free bikes around you.
This system is running in several cities in Germany.
http://www.callabike-interaktiv.de/kundenbuchung/process.php...
> One bike went missing the first year and it was later recovered. Last year all were accounted for. This year three or four are missing, but Dossett expects them to turn up.
I suppose the distinctiveness of the bicycles has something to do with it, plus, they're relatively difficult to maneuver.
can't you lock any bike sharing bike anywhere, as long as you return it to the designated rack at the end of the ride? what's new here?
So if you go into a store, you dock your bike. This gets around that, at least.
But yes, the wording "ensures that users don’t need to lock their bikes at designated docking stations [...] the bike still need to be returned to designated spots at the end of the ride" is pretty bad and unclear.
Within inner city limits, you can use your smartphone to get an unlock code (or call a hotline), then use the bike for 8 cents per minute as long as you wish and drop it off anywhere (again, within city limits).
> The bike still need to be returned to designated spots at the end of the ride.
Or, you know, Canada, where Bixi developed the system that now powers Boston's, D.C.'s, and NYC's shares.
But let's ignore the numbers for a second (absolute numbers make not a lot of sense anyway, imho. Per capita, maybe?). The real feature is what the headline of this article (wrongly) implied. That you can drive to your friend's place and 'return' the bike in front of his door. Or in front of your favorite pub. Or cinema. No docking stations, period.
But there were some hilarious failure modes too, all company meet at Shoreline, huge pile of bikes at Shoreline Ampitheater and none on campus.
Bike fail? No clear way how to get it fixed, 'dead' bikes would accumulate in the periphery buildings.
And of course there was 'diffusion' into the greater Mtn View area :-)
In general, there are usually plenty of bikes around campus, though more at the inner buildings and fewer at the outer buildings.