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Charlotte Bike / Scooter Sharing


kermit

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12 minutes ago, Scribe said:

 Maybe what Charlotte needs is bike-share etiquette...

Agreed. I am often frustrated at what I see as simple narcissism from some of the bike share users, like intersection corners being appropriate places to park, so when I come across these bikes I pick them up and move them a few feet to a better spot. The large-scale grouping of bikes that you refer to is likely being done by the companies themselves, and we could make some progress here.  Perhaps they shouldn't be able to relocate more than a certain amount of bikes to a specific spot...though this would be hard to enforce. I see these problems as human error, and correctable, not inherent bike share problems.

Edited by JoshuaDrown
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Agree here as well.

10 minutes ago, JoshuaDrown said:

Perhaps they shouldn't be able to relocate more than a certain amount of bikes to a specific spot...though this would be hard to enforce.

I do not think it is as hard to enforce (or at least not hard to get enough data to know how to proceed).

For instance: require every bike relocation by the company to take a few (2-3) wide angle shots of the location where they place the bikes. Those photos must be stored on a shared google-drive folder for that company.

  1.  you have timestamp
  2. require geo-coding of the photo (from smartphone)
  3. that is cheap way for the city to have a record of it.
    1. The city does not have to enforce immediately, just gather the data but place the burden on the bike share companies
  4. the more advanced way - require the geo-location of every bike every 5 minutes to be posted to an API hosted by the city.
    1. This will show, not just what the company moved but every move of the bike, allowing the city to see if the company is doing this or if paying customers/end users are leaving bikes at bad ending locations.
    2. then you have a way to educate the right audience.
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All good points/discussion on both sides.  The bikes don't bother me (much).  Just seems wasteful and I'm perplexed by the economics of it all.  Again, my biggest concern is that four alternatives are less convenient (aforementioned apps) and less economically sustainable.  I shouldn't worry about these companies but if they all fail/pull out, some politician may incorrectly conclude that dockless bikes can't work here.

PS  Can we get a few more city blocks that look like that one in Denmark?

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Driving through NoDa this morning I saw quite a few batches of company placed bikes. None were domino-effect knocked over except for the oFo bikes (the yellow ones), three separate batches of those were toppled over. I think either somebody hates them (Spin?) or they have particularly crappy kickstands.

I do agree that sidewalk blocking is a problem.

Edited by kermit
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For someone who has enabled the app for any of these bikeshares, is the agreement including no company responsibility for use, misuse, danger, damage, fitness, breakage, failure to operate as expected, and so on? No acceptance for injury loss of life etc.? Is there a lower age limit in the agreement for users?

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11 minutes ago, tarhoosier said:

For someone who has enabled the app for any of these bikeshares, is the agreement including no company responsibility for use, misuse, danger, damage, fitness, breakage, failure to operate as expected, and so on? No acceptance for injury loss of life etc.? Is there a lower age limit in the agreement for users?

Needless to say I didn't read mine. I would think that, this being NC, the need for liability wavers is limited since we are a contributory negligence state. Since use requires a credit card there is an implied age limit (or an assumed parental permission to use their card legally).

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9 hours ago, KJHburg said:

This is a problem for handicapped people and really anybody walking a sidewalk.  In south end today. 

IMG_5016.JPG

I live right across the street from here. (I actually just stepped out on my patio to check, it is still there.) This is a common problem around my building, the bikes are left right in the middle of the sidewalk. I have, unceremoniously, thrown the bikes off the sidewalk when I run across it in the middle of the sidewalk like this. This is the problem that needs to be fixed, the city needs to start fining the companies, who will probably pass it on to the customers, then maybe everyone will learn. I think the bikes are a great idea, but there needs to be some clarification on the "leave it anywhere" thing.

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1 hour ago, Squid7085 said:

I live right across the street from here. (I actually just stepped out on my patio to check, it is still there.) This is a common problem around my building, the bikes are left right in the middle of the sidewalk. I have, unceremoniously, thrown the bikes off the sidewalk when I run across it in the middle of the sidewalk like this. This is the problem that needs to be fixed, the city needs to start fining the companies, who will probably pass it on to the customers, then maybe everyone will learn. I think the bikes are a great idea, but there needs to be some clarification on the "leave it anywhere" thing.

Some people are just generally selfish dicks that need to go live in a cabin in the woods somewhere, where they can be with only themselves because that's clearly all they care about. It's people like that who make folks want to move to the suburbs and drive their own personal vehicle everywhere. The person who talks on the phone loudly in public (particularly on the train or bus) the person who smokes in a crowd, the friends who stop to have a conversation in the middle of the sidewalk, the left lane cruisers, the people who won't put away their cart, who unfold all the shirts on the rack, pee on a public toilet seat, make a mess in the food court, don't watch their kids at the store, they all fall into the same category as the people who leave bikes in the middle of the sidewalk. A buddy of mine, from out of town, was recently in town visiting his infant daughter's doctor when he encountered a Limebike that had literally been left in the entrance to the parking garage of the building where the clinic is, he had to get out and physically move it. 

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8 hours ago, Squid7085 said:

This is a common problem around my building, the bikes are left right in the middle of the sidewalk. I have, unceremoniously, thrown the bikes off the sidewalk when I run across it in the middle of the sidewalk like this.

I certainly understand your frustration, I am a huge fan of dockless bike share and the parking of some of these bikes really gets under my skin, but as one fellow urbanist to another, I would politely ask you to rethink your urge to throw the bike off the sidewalk. When confronted with frustration, we have a moment to decide whether we will be part of the problem or part of the solution.

I agree with Kate Cavazza, bike program manager for Sustain Charlotte, in a Creative Loafing article on this topic, "I would say, for other bike advocates, if you see a bike that's down, pick it up, move it over," she said. "It doesn't take that much effort. If you have a problem with it, move it three feet to the left.”

https://clclt.com/charlotte/invasion-of-the-bike-shares/Content?oid=7893620

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... another tweet highlighting the actual issues with use of our public space.  If we replace a couple of car-parking spaces (average occupancy 1.59) and replace them with a dozen parking spaces for bicycles (occupancy for 12+), add geofencing in bike corrals, then perhaps our public space will start to function a bit better and look significantly less cluttered.  

 

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13 hours ago, nakers2 said:

Some people are just generally selfish dicks that need to go live in a cabin in the woods somewhere, where they can be with only themselves because that's clearly all they care about. It's people like that who make folks want to move to the suburbs and drive their own personal vehicle everywhere. The person who talks on the phone loudly in public (particularly on the train or bus) the person who smokes in a crowd, the friends who stop to have a conversation in the middle of the sidewalk, the left lane cruisers, the people who won't put away their cart, who unfold all the shirts on the rack, pee on a public toilet seat, make a mess in the food court, don't watch their kids at the store, they all fall into the same category as the people who leave bikes in the middle of the sidewalk. A buddy of mine, from out of town, was recently in town visiting his infant daughter's doctor when he encountered a Limebike that had literally been left in the entrance to the parking garage of the building where the clinic is, he had to get out and physically move it. 

This is the best post I've ever read on UP...

image.jpeg.29dac7fe0c637aeb0a3d04931f47606c.jpegimage.jpeg.d1475f45536c12893b6d51a2d1b272ad.jpegimage.jpeg.ac197a682e48de2d1a83f621de899625.jpeg

Edited by JBS
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2 hours ago, lit said:

If it was a problem, why didn’t you move it?

I would be happy to answer your question.  1. where I was going to move it to? the sidewalk in not wide enough so my choices were the gravel privately owned parking lot to right (and blocking a vehicle parking there) or into the public street to the left.  HOWEVER if I saw a handicapped or elderly person coming up that sidewalk I would have thrown into the parking lot to clear the public sidewalk. 2. What would you have done?  3. I am not in the business of placing bikes all over town.  

I am not opposed to this dockless bike craze however if you are going to block public sidewalks with your money making venture you need to take care of your business.  

As for vehicles parking on the sidewalk as in the post above,  they would be ticketed or towed or nothing would happen if it is a true emergency or the sidewalk was legally closed.  That photo was not from Charlotte and I have never seen people uptown park on the sidewalk without some kind of permission.  

 

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40 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

 That photo was not from Charlotte and I have never seen people uptown park on the sidewalk without some kind of permission. 

perhaps not in uptown but it happens in neighborhoods many times a day. (e.g. cars in driveways blocking sidewalks)

Edited by kermit
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