Bike Share Program Opens in New York City After Long Delay
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
I had to meet some friends in soho, which normally takes about 25 minutes by subway or 10 minutes by cab - I casually biked there in 12 minutes. It was great being able to leave my bike a block from where I was meeting my friends without worrying about locking it, and it was great that I could pick up another bike several blocks away to go home.
The bikes themselves are clunky and built like tanks, which seems right because the bikes will be used a lot and are always outside. The bikes ride slowly, which again seems right for a commuting bike in a crowded urban setting.
The bike stations are still having some issues that I hope will be ironed out shortly. Every time I tried to take out a bike the station would abort with a flashing red light the first three or four times, which was annoying. The station map was down all of yesterday, so I had to search around a bit for stations. That said the stations are nearly ubiquitous in downtown manhattan so it really wasn't a big issue.
Overall I'm really happy with the program and plan on using it a lot.
I actually prefer biking fast in NYC. The traffic lights are synchronized to 30mph traffic. It's not easy to sustain 30 mph (you need a racing bike or to be in very good shape) but I try to get up to 20-22 mph to limit my time spent at lights. Of course, this isn't an option if I need to be presentable and not sweaty whereever I'm going.
I've noticed the same, the only time I can ever "keep up" with the green lights on my folding Dahon is on 5th ave, the very down-hill portion from 40th street to about 23rd.
There are some special streets though which are not in sync with the other lights: 42nd, 23rd, 14th (maybe 34th)... so as long as I catch each leg within one green light I consider that successful.
That's a nice stretch. 7th Avenue between 59th and 48th is also pretty nice hill-wise (assuming the traffic isn't insane).
I've found this to be very dangerous, because other bicyclists simply do not obey traffic laws.
For example: they regularly run red lights, which makes approaching intersections at-speed dangerous for both parties. I was nearly hit on one occasion (the other cyclist skidded out and set his bike down) while I had a clear green light.
After that (and a few other incidents), I stopped riding fast in Manhattan. I'd love to see strict and brutal enforcement of traffic laws to curb people's antisocial bicycle behavior, but I doubt we will.
I don't comment much but this is a misconception I believe.
This study, www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/traffic-note-8-cycling-red-lights.pdf by TFL points out that an average of 16% of cyclist jump lights etc... That's a load of people, but still a minority of cyclist out on the roads.
If 16% of drivers jumped the lights, we'd rightly be outraged.
You're spot-on with this description, but there's a nuance that many commenters here are overlooking: these bikes are designed for novice bike riders. These bikes are tanks. They force you to ride slowly, sit upright, and they are easy to jump off of. They're designed to get novice riders across town safely.
The same bike-sharing program is currently in it's second year here in Boston. Our version is called "Hubway" (www.thehubway.com). Same equipment. It's great a great way for tourists to see our city and gives many of us a much-needed alternative to our subway system (the "T").
Just today I have added New York's Citibike to my bike sharing project [1]. Feel free to give it a spin!
List of juicy features:
- Android version
- Push notifications for stations of interest
- Distraction free map!
- HTML version [2]
- Hacky goodie: realtime world map [3]
I have a python library available at http://github.com/eskerda/pybikes that unifies all the data from different sources into the same model.
However note 404 on about page
I'm also looking forward to people competitively racing these things with the personal trip data a part of the platform.
From our side, it's difficult to track bike movements due to false positives (bikes that are transported by van from station to station).
Of course, city councils could (and should) try new ideas with all the information they have. The funny part is that most city councils do not have access to the full history, and only the company providing the service. The companies providing these services are old players, and do not want or do not care to invest on cool features.
Who would not want to appear on the Highscore table?
P.S. Your contact page 404's, and you don't have your email address in your hacker news profile.
The 'call a bike' system is interesting, and differs from the overall scheme of most bike sharing systems. You have to call a number, enter a pin, and then you get a code to unlock the chain. I find it pretty intelligent, but a bit conflicting with what I have currently running.
At the same time, both systems are really small in stations, but big in locations (as in, there are lots of cities). That's the main reason I have to not support them at the moment, and the main reason of rewriting the architecture of the project. I did not know the project was going to grow at the start, so every city is a different module, if possible, with some inheritance. The new architecture [1] will feature systems as instances, instead of a separated class, thus, making it trivial to generate instances on the run.
Not sure if I went too far with the response, hope it's useful.
Their data feed is available [1], but in the terms of use [2], page 1, point 4 it says:
4. Proprietary Rights in Website Content; Limited License to Access and
Use Website.
All content that is on the Website or that is available through the
Website or any of the Affiliated Websites, including all designs,
text, graphics, pictures, video, information, applications, software,
music, sound, and other files and their selection and arrangement
(collectively, "Website Content"), is the exclusive proprietary
property of Alta and its Related Parties, with all rights reserved by
Alta and its Related Parties. [...]
Then there is the new insurgency of people who are "wizards" who come to the field with a high level of sophistication about coding, visualization, and analytics. To some of the older guard, these people are intimidating, because the new guard believes intuitively in open access to data through useful APIs, and repeatable analyses that consume the same data that everyone else gets.
Contrast that with the clickety-click Excel/ESRI paradigm that we're waking up from. Data is "public" but not accessible. Analyses are performed by an expert who you simply have to trust that they did things right, because all you have is a finished map.
I love the new direction that's coming in planning. In my city, we have a happy confluence of relatively sophisticated planners, a big tech scene, a lots of ped/bike/transit advocates, but there is still a gulf between what The People want in terms of data services, and what the various transit, city, MPO agencies have capacity to provide.
This pre-coffee ramble is a long winded way of saying, "keep fighting the good fight, and doing cool and interesting stuff with urban data."
I ask only because I want to solve social issues with tech.
I'm curious about statistics like the most frequent bike routes people take, the longest rides, the density of bikes per location, etc.
It is totally supposed to be about the ride-from-rack-to-rack setup. That's why there's a 30-45 minute max before they have overages (the longer time is for the annual members).
This is still the best thing to happen to NYC in a while.
I mean you don't really survive even the first impact and sometimes when you think you do, an hour later you don't: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/18/brain.injury/ (aka "talk and die")
in other words: the kinds of injuries an average helmet from the market would protect in some low margin of cases - probably won't happen. in the ones you fear the most - won't help you anyway.
if people buy the fact that helmets will help them a bit when a car hits them at 60km/h, why don't they wear it when crossing the street by foot.
Just a fortnight ago, a driver undertook (should not in highway code) a right turning van (UK) entering a bus lane during restricted hours (must not in highway code) and directly pulled in to my immediate path (must not in highway code). I had to take some avoiding action, it was a choice between his van, or trying to squeeze to the left of him between the pavement. I choose the pavement. I hit the ground with a total speed of at most 4mph. My rucksack hit the ground first, this is what happened to my phone: http://imgur.com/a1jqN9T.JPG . Keep in mind this nokia had happily survived worse injuries. Hell see their youtube channel for the stress tests. The point is the angle of the accident and force I had were a perfect storm, my dlock moved and smashed everything, my washkit was demolished, even the metal anti-perspirant can was crushed.
The driver didn't even stop.
I am not an unsafe cyclist, I follow the rules of the highway code, I'm head to toe in good commuting clothing, my idea of a bank holiday is 200 miles of cycling on the continent or wales. I never have headphones in, always wear corrective vision sports glasses, I have an advanced driving license, rather than just the standard british one, I also have a pilots license. I have good spatial awareness and do not take unnecessary risks. In the last 4 years, I have been knocked off 3 times. I have bailed off (ie jumped voluntarily because I can't stop to avoid hitting someone) 5 times, once, cutting up my face rather badly, ruining the helmet completely, I've no idea what would have happened if I wasn't wearing it. Same goes with my shorts, 15mph on tarmac is not good.
I have also had to crash into a very kind mans car, because someone "couldn't see me", they then left the scene of the accident, the police didn't do anything as I only had a partial number plate.
When I cycle in London, and I'm doing 30 miles a day, I'll wear a helmet, I'll consider anyone who has headphones in which is sadly now a common site, a complete idiot (its illegal in some countries, but not UK).
I have also first responded to two accidents involving bikes.
So lets re-cap. Amount of times spent walking the streets, lots. Amount of accidents, 0. Amount of time spent cycling, lots. Amount of accidents, too many.
Skipping the helmet is in the same class of activity as skipping the seat belt. If you drive/bike under the right conditions in a variety of respects which are otherwise safe, you can easily luck out and avoid injury. If you want to argue that you have the right to endanger your own life like that, you have an argument.
But if you tell yourself it isn't actually a risk (for most people, one of the top risks you're exposing yourself to) then you're probably delusional. And people always get annoyed when you deconstruct their delusions. :P
btw: In my last accident in a urban setting, I came down 3-4m away from my bike. And it did not involve any car, just me poorly performing an emergency break at about 20-25 km/h
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=gravitational+potential... ...energy of 75kg at 1.5m = 1.10 kJ
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=kinetic+energy+of+75kg+... ...at 20kmph = 1.15 kJ
That is to say, your head is likely to experience roughly the same force when riding head-first into a brick wall at 20kmph as falling head-first onto pavement from a high seated position, but one of these can happen at any speed.
Real world traffic accidents don't usually happen because one thing goes wrong. They happen because several things go wrong at the same time.
Helmets aren't a perfect solution, but they compensate to some degree for the fragile (and unpredictably so) nature of the head.
Disclaimer: I live in the Netherlands, bikes are everywhere.
The main difference is that here, you have experienced cyclists (you learn to walk, then you learn to ride a bicycle), dedicated bicycle lanes, and car drivers that know there's cyclists around and look out for them.
As for helmets or not, it's very much a factor of speed, risk of accidents, and the nature of the accident. Hit your head at a high enough speed (iirc, anywhere above 30 KM/h) and you'll get a concussion, even with a helmet. Maybe no cranial fracture, but still. Helmet won't protect you from breaking your neck or getting run over by a semi either.
tl;dr, I don't wear a helmet, I don't need to, and I live in a country where cyclists are common. You do see people wearing helmets, but they're usually children in busy cities or speed cyclists. Sometimes both.
It's a sampling problem: you only talk to cyclists. The head-injury cases who didn't wear helmets are injured or dead, and correspondingly no longer cyclists.
NYC has a population 10.40 times larger than the largest city in Netherlands (Amsterdam), with a density that is 7.85 times greater.
I also got hit by a car a couple of months ago.
You couldn't pay me enough to ride a bike without a helmet.
I usually wear one when biking in Manhattan, but I rode Citibike today and went helmetless.
This is probably statistically whack, but I "feel" safer riding Citibike without the helmet, mostly because I can go a lot faster on my road bike.
And some evangelizing against helmet laws: http://www.copenhagenize.com/2008/08/helmets-or-health.html
There are no helmet rules listed that apply to anyone over fourteen.
Source: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/bicyclerules_engli...
This is untrue; commercial cyclists must wear a helmet (see 412(p)(4)(v))
Unless people are trying to make a point to point trip somewhere above 60th in Manhattan or outside of the little Brooklyn cluster of stations. You also can't just ride up to Sheep Meadow in Central Park and read a book in the grass next to your bike for a few hours without getting hit with overtime fees. Even within the covered area, there are gaps between stations and being able to ride up to the door of your destination is pretty nice.
I'm all for public bike rental, and I think for a lot of people it's going to be good enough and a lot easier to deal with than their own bike, folding or not. But personal folding bikes obsolete in NYC? Not yet.
They are lightweight, you can carry it everywhere, your speed will be 2-3 times faster, than pedestrians.
Getting a kick scooter literally changed my life :)
One of the very cool things about this program is that all the bikes are equipped with GPSes, and combined with the data from the docking stations themselves, there's a stated intent to use this data to determine where more bike lanes and bike lane improvements will go in.
Some roads have protected bike lanes where you're separated by traffic via a concrete divider, potted plants, or parking spaces, and those definitely feel a lot less scary.
Sadly it seems a bike was stolen in the first hour it was live too.
Not to mention the bikes have GPS and can be tracked down.
http://www.businessinsider.com/first-citi-bike-has-been-stol...