Bike Share
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- Landmark Center
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Re: Bike Share
are the blue nice ride bikes like camouflaged? Cause I have not found one yet... will keep searching and watching but...
Re: Bike Share
I don't believe the dockless bikes have been released yet. They've got a lot of Hubs to paint.
Joey Senkyr
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Re: Bike Share
I really enjoy that Saint Paul managed to beat Minneapolis to dockless bike share.
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- Landmark Center
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Re: Bike Share
have you seen any of the hubs getting installed? Have not seen any of them myself yet.I don't believe the dockless bikes have been released yet. They've got a lot of Hubs to paint.
Bike Share
I saw one the other day near Franklin 18th. The hubs are just painted lines on the sidewalk.
Edit: 18th and Nickolet.
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Edit: 18th and Nickolet.
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Re: Bike Share
The Nice Ride dockless bikes are here! Just saw three of them sitting at 4th and 15th in Dinkytown, and lots more showing up in the app, mostly around the U of M so far.
Re: Bike Share
According to the map, it doesn’t look like people are parking them in the hubs. I still don’t fully understand the idea of the hum. In my opinion, I feel like it contradicts the whole idea of dockless share.
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Re: Bike Share
I guess the idea of the hub is it's cheap to create a hub since all you need is paint, but you still get the dependability of having a hub. I personally prefer the dependability of a hub over having bikes in random places and never knowing if one will be available when I need them.According to the map, it doesn’t look like people are parking them in the hubs. I still don’t fully understand the idea of the hum. In my opinion, I feel like it contradicts the whole idea of dockless share.
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Re: Bike Share
I thought the hubs were city-mandated because of (dubious) clutter concerns?
So far, the hubs render the new bikes kind of useless. There are no hubs south of 21st between 35W and Hiawatha, for example. If you want to go there, you will get charged an extra $5 for leaving the bike other than at a hub. There are exactly 3 hubs south of Lake Street and 3 in North Minneapolis.
I guess there are more hubs coming, but for now, the only advantage of the new bikes seems to be more supply in already busy areas. To me, that's leaving the promise of dockless bikes on the table and adding almost no new flexibility. ETA: You can't even leave the bikes at every existing station!
As for finding a bike if there's no hub, you need to use the app anyway, which will tell you where the bikes are, and the presence off a hub doesn't mean there will be bikes there (there were none at the 46th St Station this morning and one at the hub at 21st and Bloomington last night).
So far, the hubs render the new bikes kind of useless. There are no hubs south of 21st between 35W and Hiawatha, for example. If you want to go there, you will get charged an extra $5 for leaving the bike other than at a hub. There are exactly 3 hubs south of Lake Street and 3 in North Minneapolis.
I guess there are more hubs coming, but for now, the only advantage of the new bikes seems to be more supply in already busy areas. To me, that's leaving the promise of dockless bikes on the table and adding almost no new flexibility. ETA: You can't even leave the bikes at every existing station!
As for finding a bike if there's no hub, you need to use the app anyway, which will tell you where the bikes are, and the presence off a hub doesn't mean there will be bikes there (there were none at the 46th St Station this morning and one at the hub at 21st and Bloomington last night).
Last edited by amiller92 on September 19th, 2018, 9:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Bike Share
The hubs were part of NiceRide/Motivate's proposal well before they went to the city. They are (for some reason) very attached to it.
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- Wells Fargo Center
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Re: Bike Share
The University of Minnesota campus allows the NiceRide "dockless" to be parked at any bike rack, so that is why it looks like they aren't at docks.According to the map, it doesn’t look like people are parking them in the hubs. I still don’t fully understand the idea of the hum. In my opinion, I feel like it contradicts the whole idea of dockless share.
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- Stone Arch Bridge
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Re: Bike Share
Maybe the next step could be... Allowing any public bike rack to be a dock...
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- Wells Fargo Center
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Re: Bike Share
One can hope!Maybe the next step could be... Allowing any public bike rack to be a dock...
Re: Bike Share
A hub doesn't necessarily mean there is a bike but it makes it easier to plan trips. It's nice know when I get off a bus that more often than not a bike will be there. With totally dock less bikes it's harder to count on the bikes as a serious form of transportation.As for finding a bike if there's no hub, you need to use the app anyway, which will tell you where the bikes are, and the presence off a hub doesn't mean there will be bikes there (there were none at the 46th St Station this morning and one at the hub at 21st and Bloomington last night).
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- Landmark Center
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Re: Bike Share
at first thought I would have agreed, however it's a bad idea. Putting more bikes into our already at and above capacity bike racks and public bike parking spaces is a slippery slope, more so when NiceRide starts pushing more and more bikes into the network. What we need is the duel system. Bike parking is well established through hard work, now we need to invest the work to build of the bikeshare hub network. Businesses should be able to sponsor a 100-250 buck bike hub and help support the system by maintaining the space. And in return they get to be rewarded with the increased traffic they get and increased customer satisfaction by having the bike hub. There is no reason why Target can't agree to sponsor a bike hub next to their storefront on nicollet mall and on lake street where they typically would park extra shopping carts (typical suburb store format location) In the bigger picture and long term I think hubs are a genius idea. The problem right now I noticed since the roll out is the hub network is laughably small, it needs time to be rolled out fully and time to expand based on the needs of the system. I imagine we will have 7-12 bike hubs for a few years, until we can start getting it pinpointed and having 2-6 bike hubs nearly on every block. With affordable pricing of 75 bucks a year who could NOT take ownership and feel this is OUR SYSTEM and have a sense of pride. If that occurs we might be seeing community members who use the system volunteering to help maintain a hub station (keeping it clear, making sure the sign is clean and visible, repainting lines every few years, as it does not require much work) which perhaps would entane a discounted membership of 10-20 bucks? Maybe i'm ignorant, but I think bike hubs long term is going to be insanely successful and will become more of a status symbol in neighborhoods as they increase property values due to the increased mobility opportunity.Maybe the next step could be... Allowing any public bike rack to be a dock...
Plus hubs are placed directly for the system, meaning we can build it based on requirements such as visibilities from the street, instead of it deteratoring into a game of playing where's waldo. I been a NiceRide user for years now, even with owning several personal bikes. I love the dependability of station location and I don't have to hunt down bikes (well rarely there are shortages in a wide area)
The only change I would think they need to consider is long term installing posts into each hub parking space that the bike be locked to as a way of preventing them from moving once locked. There is no reason why sombody could pick up a bike and move it into an area that makes sombody want to report that bike as being parked incorrectly and the last user is out 5 bucks! I say this because I have had homeless people try asking me to let him have my nice ride bike since I was just going to lock it up anyways. I said no and locked it up, I could easily see him or sombody else wanting to "punish" me or sombody else by moving it and then I would get charged 5 bucks for wrongful parking. That probably won't happen to much but if there are many anti-bike activists from the suburbs could do a lot of damage to users experience really quick.
Re: Bike Share
We already have a system of fixed location bike stations. The point of dockless, with enough bikes, is they can be pretty much everywhere. Hubs only stand in the way of them actually working like that.
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- IDS Center
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Re: Bike Share
Dockless hubs also show up on the app with a real time bike count- so no guessing either.
A hub doesn't necessarily mean there is a bike but it makes it easier to plan trips. It's nice know when I get off a bus that more often than not a bike will be there. With totally dock less bikes it's harder to count on the bikes as a serious form of transportation.
Q. What, what? A. In da butt.
Re: Bike Share
I guess I am just more in favor of expanding hub locations.We already have a system of fixed location bike stations. The point of dockless, with enough bikes, is they can be pretty much everywhere. Hubs only stand in the way of them actually working like that.
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- Landmark Center
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Re: Bike Share
Yea, and NiceRide is already saying with the much much lower costs for each hub instead of bike station they can have many more. So there is no reason why we can't have a hub just about ever 2 block along moderate to high traffic areas and 3-4 in yet to develop (in usage) areas. neighborhoods, businesses, and local investors could easily raise 100-250 bucks for the upfront cost and/or possibly just double that number to ensure that there is funds for upkeep over the years as well. I think within 10 years we could see hubs in other cities in the metro too. It has the potential to be a staple in our metro area, one of the best biking (if not number one still) metro areas in the US.I guess I am just more in favor of expanding hub locations.We already have a system of fixed location bike stations. The point of dockless, with enough bikes, is they can be pretty much everywhere. Hubs only stand in the way of them actually working like that.
Re: Bike Share
We don't need to add posts to lock to, as that just adds more expense to the "hub" system. And it essentially makes them docked bikes.The only change I would think they need to consider is long term installing posts into each hub parking space that the bike be locked to as a way of preventing them from moving once locked. There is no reason why sombody could pick up a bike and move it into an area that makes sombody want to report that bike as being parked incorrectly and the last user is out 5 bucks! I say this because I have had homeless people try asking me to let him have my nice ride bike since I was just going to lock it up anyways. I said no and locked it up, I could easily see him or sombody else wanting to "punish" me or sombody else by moving it and then I would get charged 5 bucks for wrongful parking. That probably won't happen to much but if there are many anti-bike activists from the suburbs could do a lot of damage to users experience really quick.
In any case, I don't see why this would be an issue to begin with. There bikes lock themselves, so you'd need to physically provide another lock to attach them to anything. And I'm unsure how anyone would be charged by having a bike moved after they finished their ride. If you end the ride and lock the bike, you aren't responsible for it anymore, the same way you aren't responsible for a bike after you secure it in a dock.
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