urbanSTL

There is no relationship other than both use bikes. Dock system in the US generally needed a non profit or government to fund a large portion. Dockless on the other hand is a private for profit businesses because it’s cheaper than building dedicated stations.

The next step in bike share isn’t bikes, it’s scooters and just today Lime Bike announced that it’s dropping Bike from its name and just being called Lime and also announced a new partnership with Segway.
https://t.co/ijrUGS5nKp?amp=1

Amazing photos of China's vast dockless bike graveyards.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gall ... n-pictures

danke0 wrote: ↑

May 02, 2018

Sorry if this was discussed earlier but what is the relationship between these dockless programs and a traditional docked bike-share program? Is one supposed to lead to the other, or is this dockless system being used in place of one with bike docks? I just wonder, if the end goal is a permanent bike share infrastructure, does allowing dockless bikes help that or hinder it?

A hybrid seems to make most sense. Smart bikes that are required to use designated dumb bike racks that are listed on the bike app's map. It's a lot cheaper to deploy 'dumb' (regular) racks with bikeshare branding than smart bike stations, and allows more flexibility and broader deployment out of the gate.

Designated dumb racks cost less, allows for quicker deployment but allows for more structure than dockless.

pattimagee wrote: ↑

May 02, 2018

Also - getting your bikes to the dock stations is a really annoying user experience as opposed to stop and drop wherever you want to is a pretty attractive perk for riders.

But this advantage is obliterated in pick up because you have to walk long to one of the sparsely populated bikes

stl07 wrote: ↑

May 02, 2018

But this advantage is obliterated in pick up because you have to walk long to one of the sparsely populated bikes

Right. This uncertainty is what killed taxi cabs. You call a cab, but you don't know if it'll be 10 minutes or two hours before they arrive.

To me, certainty that I can return home fuels my transportation decisions.

Lime Bike recovered as evidence in homicide investigation.

http://fox2now.com/2018/05/02/14-year-o ... -st-louis/

Saw an Ofo bike in use for the first time yesterday on the Loop but PD says they haven't started service yet. Anybody know what is going on with that?

I saw a picture of a couple of them outside Whole Foods on Euclid.

Spotted Ofo bikes downtown

Black02AltimaSE wrote: ↑

May 07, 2018

Saw an Ofo bike in use for the first time yesterday on the Loop but PD says they haven't started service yet. Anybody know what is going on with that?

There were Ofo bikes in Skinker DeBaliviere for PorchFestSTL last Sunday.

I saw an OFO at Juniata and Spring in TGS on Saturday (as well as 7-9 LimeBikes being used on South Grand over the course of an hour or so...)

-RBB

There was an OFO sitting outside the D concourse at Lambert last Friday when my wife and I picked up her fifth auntie. Believe it or don't. Just sitting there on the sidewalk halfway between terminals. In the middle of nowhere. The OFOs haven't achieved Limelike saturation yet, but . . . At least they look a little better than the Limes. (Marginally.)

Was out in Forest Park last week with a friend from CoMO and she asked about the Limes. I explained them. She said "We could have rented one of those to walk from the Art Museum to the car?" Sure. Just . . . not much faster than we walked if forum reports are to be believed. And we'd have had to ride a terrible looking bike to do it. (I'm much more of a walker than biker. Hope these things work out for you. Please ignore my aesthetic objections. But . . . Lime Green? Really? Honestly? Yeah yea. It's a brand. *Grumble* I hate catchy modern placeless ahistorical branding crap. McBikeapaloozingMan.)

Note: All of the above is just me trying to be Statler or Waldorf, or some other Scrooge. Ride your bike. Be safe. Have fun. Enjoy. And yes, it'd probably have been okay to ride from the Art Museum to the Tennis Center.

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

May 15, 2018

Also: I do like the fact that these seem to be something useful to lots of people of all sorts and not just trendy types.

Totally agree with this. I have seen an incredible range of people using these which is great to see.

Also my boss told me yesterday about how great Chattanooga's bike share is compared to this because they have docks which keeps the bikes organized and people have to have a plan for them. I didnt even fight it - haters gonna hate.

My unsolicited but short review of Limebike:

Pros: Sleek system. Little song plays when unlocking the bike. When finished I got a notification saying how many calories I burned and how much CO2 I saved.

Con: Gears are set way too low for how flat our city is. It was almost infuriating how little I was accomplishing with each peddle. I could see it working better in a hilly city but it is way too low for STL.

Only like 10% of the Limebikes have gears, but all the Ofo bikes I've seen have gears. So I'm definitely going to be using Ofo over Limebike if at all possible.

This is mostly inconsequential, except for maybe feeding them bad data. But every single ride I've taken on Limebike, my ride map/distance is way off in their app. Some of them say I traveled zero feet. Most of the others just show my ride ending halfway to my destination.

Likebike seems to have moved into Clayton. A bunch around town today and they have a booth at the Clayton wine fest.

I wish the City would make public the data they require Ofo and Lime to feed them

I just returned from my first trip to China, first thing we saw outside the Beijing airport was an Ofo bike. 1000's of ofos and other companies scattered throughout the city and being widely used.

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Jun 09, 2018

jshank83 wrote: ↑

Jun 09, 2018

Likebike seems to have moved into Clayton. A bunch around town today and they have a booth at the Clayton wine fest.

as of 6:35 only Lime Bikes i see in Clayton about 10 downtown and some are near the city boarder/western forest park.

There were 3 at Bemiston and Carondelet and 4 at Bemiston and Forsyth. The guy at the booth said by the end of the month U city and Clayton will be added. Technically Clayton isn't added until the end of the month is sound like.

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Jun 09, 2018

I wish the City would make public the data they require Ofo and Lime to feed them

It shouldn't be too hard to put down a request for this, no? Many other cities make publicly available this type of transportation data, i.e. NYC and yellow cab rides.

Clayton is now on board.
http://claytontimes.com/clayton-gears-u ... lime-bike/