Bike Share

[Silophant]

For the parking meters, I believe the app is run by a third party, who charges a fee in addition to the base charge the city gets, which is the same between in person and app payment.

[EOst]

I think 500 is the initial parking rollout, with more anticipated later. They were talking about submitting full site plans to the city for each one, so 500 is a lot for a very limited amount of time.

I don't personally love the "dockless bike share, but constrained to a limited number of painted virtual docks" model, but we'll see how it plays out in Minneapolis. It's still up in the air what dockless looks like in Saint Paul. From what I've heard we should hear before too long. Their RFP didn't specify anything about virtual docks, and I'd be surprised if Lime (probably one of the top proposals) pushes for them.

[seanrichardryan]

500 parking zones, that doesn’t seem much for an entire city.


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It says 500 additional parking areas, so maybe in addition to the existing docks and bikes.

[Multimodal]

The cheaper-by-the-app price is likely so they can monetize your location data to sell advertising.

Don’t be surprised if a coupon for Starbucks pops up as you get within 20 feet of one.

[Multimodal]

Nice Ride will now be operated by Motivate. Some big changes:

https://www.niceridemn.org/news/2018/07 ... _minnesota

And Motivate was just bought by Lyft for $250 million.

https://www.wired.com/story/lyft-motiva ... aquisition

[Qhaberl]

In regards to the virtual parking spaces:

my concern is that they will be placed only in downtown Minneapolis, uptown, South Minneapolis, and Southeast Minneapolis. I really hope they’re looking into making sure that underserved areas, such as North Minneapolis, get their share of these virtual stations.

Dockless:

I am personally a huge fan of the dockless bikeshare movement. I think it has the potential to really change what I’ve been mobility looks like. When it comes to people vandalizing the bikes, parking them illegally, or throwing them in the river, that’s a whole Nother problem. That’s a societal problem, and I’m not sure how we go about fixing it. Unfortunately, people don’t show the same respect to items that are shared as they do to those that they own personally.


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[Qhaberl]

We need someone to start investing in building bike racks. I am guessing that placing bike racks would not cost all that much money.

With the wave of chocolate spikes and dream city, it would be ideal to have a bike rack at every single corner, In residential areas. In commercial areas there should be bike racks everywhere. People should not have to walk far from a bike rack to their final destination.

I think the best way to deal with the problem of people parking bikes in stupid locations is to require that the bikes be attached to a fixed object.


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[Qhaberl]

Thinking more about bike share in the Twin Cities: it would be great if the cities along the southwest light rail would adopt a dockless bike share program before the southwest light rail opens. Having a ductless bike share system could really do a lot to encourage more pedestrian/bicycle friendly development along the line. It would also do great in assisting people with the 1st/last mile connection to the light rail.


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[bubzki2]

Agreed. That and plentiful bike lockers or well-lit, and well-positioned bike racks for those who commute to and from the stations, which obviously for the most part aren't in high-density districts. Even Hopkins riders will benefit from biking to and from the station.

[tmart]

I agree that bike infrastructure generally will be great for SWLRT, and especially bike share. That said, I don't see why it needs to be dockless. I'm quite sour on the idea in general, but transit stations in particular are sort of the ideal use case for docked bike share--you have loads of car-free trips starting or ending in the same place, and plenty of space for docks (and racks).

[Qhaberl]

I agree that bike infrastructure generally will be great for SWLRT, and especially bike share. That said, I don't see why it needs to be dockless. I'm quite sour on the idea in general, but transit stations in particular are sort of the ideal use case for docked bike share--you have loads of car-free trips starting or ending in the same place, and plenty of space for docks (and racks).

I would totally be OK if they didn’t use the Dockless system. the problem with the dock systems is that it cost so much to install the docking bays.

Maybe this would be an idea to try dockless bikeshare with lock to technology. That would mean the city wouldn’t have to pay an absorbent amount of money to build specific docks that only work with a specific set of bikes. The bikes would be required to be locked to a fixed object, but could be able to utilize any bike rack available.



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[Multimodal]

It’s actually happening today.

Lime Bike, the company that lost the contract for NiceRide, is now contracting with first-ring suburbs to do no-cost (to the city government) dockless bike share in at least Golden Valley, SLP, & Edina. Not sure about Hopkins or Minnetonka or EP.

[tmart]

I would totally be OK if they didn’t use the Dockless system. the problem with the dock systems is that it cost so much to install the docking bays.

Is that true, though? From this case study in DC it looks like the docks were about $37k per station (a group of bays, not an individual bay) which seems...actually pretty reasonable for a public infrastructure project.

[FISHMANPET]

When the bikes cost a couple of hundred dollars each, yeah, that's a huge cost. And docks work when both the origins and destinations are concentrated. Docks don't solve the last mile problem at a transit station because yeah, it works to have a dock on one end of the trip (the transit station) but what about the other end?

[Qhaberl]

First, thanks TMART for providing the link to the study. Very interesting reading.

Second, that is why I like the idea of using lock to technology. The bicycles could be locked to bike racks, street signs, or even trees. As long as the object it is being locked two is standing straight up.

Just so that we’re clear, I am talking only about the stations along the south west light rail Corredor, not Minneapolis or St. Paul urban areas.


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[EOst]

I think dockless vs. docked is pretty much a moot point now. Dockless is coming. Our docked provider (Nice Ride) has said their business model won't work long-term with docks. Like it or not, this is the future we're in.

[tmart]

Fair enough. It's just very odd for me to reckon with, since the same provider (PBSC, who own Nice Ride) operate a very successful and extensive docked system here in Montreal (their home city), and have turned their finances around to a surplus (granted, that's after a modest public subsidy). I know Nice Ride is a lot less built out than Bixi (around a third of the stations) but it's hard for me to imagine Bixi being improved at all by tearing out the docks.

[Qhaberl]

I think dockless vs. docked is pretty much a moot point now. Dockless is coming. Our docked provider (Nice Ride) has said their business model won't work long-term with docks. Like it or not, this is the future we're in.

You are definitely right about this being the way of the future. I do think there will definitely be home for Dockless bike share that utilizes the lock to technology. That will be a nice compromise for cities who don’t want free floating bikes randomly blocking pathways.

Not that the lock to technology will necessarily prevent bicycles blocking pathways, but I think cities who are reluctant to allow fully “Dockless” bike share into their city will use the lock to technology as a compromise. Regardless of whether it actually solves any of the problem.



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[Korh]

Thinking more about bike share in the Twin Cities: it would be great if the cities along the southwest light rail would adopt a dockless bike share program before the southwest light rail opens. Having a ductless bike share system could really do a lot to encourage more pedestrian/bicycle friendly development along the line. It would also do great in assisting people with the 1st/last mile connection to the light rail.


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I wouldn't just just stop and adding bike shares.

A while back after watching a few videos on bicycle parking facilities in the Netherlands:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3M_GM_MDg8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuhLv1AN0bE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWESiQlmOC0

It got me wondering if something similar can be added in the region albeit on a MUCH smaller scale.
After doing a little more research there seems to one already in St. Paul (I think?), but if we could add more in the area, I would argue of the top of my head that places like Target Field and Uptown Transit Center would be good places for these mini bike parking facilities as well as a few stations along the LRT lines similar to what TriMet has in Portland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYbtAv2gr1w

(could go into more detail but that might be better suited over on the Bicycle Infrastructure thread)

[mattaudio]

Wouldn't the solution to "dockless" problems be to have virtual docks as corrals in the street itself? Replace one car space with 10+ bike spaces.