Sadly don't think this will end well.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-46346677
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-46346677
Dockless e-bike hire launched in Milton Keynes
- Thread starter tom73
- Start date
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Cycleops
Legendary Member
- Location
- Accra, Ghana
I think you may well be right unfortunately.
I like Skol
A Minging Manc...
- Location
- Sunny Ashton-under-Lyne
I was wondering about the method of recharging but it seems they will have a team of operators tracking the bikes around the city, locating them and then swapping out the batteries as the charge levels drop. Doesn't seem very sustainable to me?
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
15p a minute is £8 an hour. 4 or 5 hours of that and you could have hired a small call for 24 hrs.
I'd like to think it will work, but I'm not sure it will. Watching with interest.
I'd like to think it will work, but I'm not sure it will. Watching with interest.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
MK wouldn't be my first choice for this launch because of the "intentional damage" that's crippled its Santander Bikes, but Lime aren't newcomers and the city is hilly enough to make e-bikes attractive - MK is basically one long hill in the middle that the church dome sits on, rising from the Great Ouse along the northwest edge and the Ouzel along the northeast.
It seems very disappointing that no-one has got to the bottom of the massive damage done to the Santander Bikes system. Maybe Lime's alarms and tracking will be backed up by a couple of bait bikes and cameras to see if it is really a handful of taxi drivers sabotaging cycle hire, as rumoured among city residents. I bet if someone was vandalising car clubs, the feds would be all over it.
It seems very disappointing that no-one has got to the bottom of the massive damage done to the Santander Bikes system. Maybe Lime's alarms and tracking will be backed up by a couple of bait bikes and cameras to see if it is really a handful of taxi drivers sabotaging cycle hire, as rumoured among city residents. I bet if someone was vandalising car clubs, the feds would be all over it.
Just had a two night break in Paris, where e-bikes and e-scooters are everywhere. They seem to be an excellent way of getting round the city centre.
Just think that a 10 minute hire will cost £1.50 and will get you a couple of miles from the train to the office or a couple of stops on the underground. When you compare costs with a travel card, it starts to make sense and no waiting for the next train or bus, assuming there is an abundant supply of them as they seemed to be in Paris.
Just think that a 10 minute hire will cost £1.50 and will get you a couple of miles from the train to the office or a couple of stops on the underground. When you compare costs with a travel card, it starts to make sense and no waiting for the next train or bus, assuming there is an abundant supply of them as they seemed to be in Paris.
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
I think this is symptomatic of too much cheap money sloshing around the world with dismal returns on cash resulting in increasingly weird business ventures. I don't think it will end well either. I can see the e-bikes getting robbed and their e-bits being harvested by those looking to build themselves a DIY e-bike on the cheap.
Dockless bikes unfortunately require a law abiding and responsible-minded local population if they have any chance of succeeding. If they just get vandalised and dumped randomly on the street, in waterways, and down railway embankments like garbage and become a public nuisance I can't see them being a permanent feature. Either the operators will just lose too much money and pull out, or the public will get really sick of having to continually step over the things where they have been left obstructing the pavement or dumped in people's front gardens. I even saw a stolen Boris Bike being used as chav transport outside a local McDonalds the other night, and they are at least a proper docked system. The dockless ones just become anonymous free transport for up to no good scumbags once their locking mechanisms have been broken off.
Dockless bikes unfortunately require a law abiding and responsible-minded local population if they have any chance of succeeding. If they just get vandalised and dumped randomly on the street, in waterways, and down railway embankments like garbage and become a public nuisance I can't see them being a permanent feature. Either the operators will just lose too much money and pull out, or the public will get really sick of having to continually step over the things where they have been left obstructing the pavement or dumped in people's front gardens. I even saw a stolen Boris Bike being used as chav transport outside a local McDonalds the other night, and they are at least a proper docked system. The dockless ones just become anonymous free transport for up to no good scumbags once their locking mechanisms have been broken off.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Call girl. I mean, car.
rogerzilla
Legendary Member
Milton Keynes has canals. That's all you need to know!
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
Plural? Really?
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
Better hope the dockless e-bikes have fully waterproofed electrics. I can imagine them getting fished out of the water after a few weeks and working about as well as a car that's been submerged in a flood! This must be a Foreign-sponsored venture with absolutely no idea about the behavioural mentality of a significant portion of the UK population. No sane person who understands how many mindless morons we have over here would even contemplate putting money into a scheme using expensive, thief-attracting e-bikes. You'd go for hairshirt single speeds with oddball parts and try to make them both worthless for stripping for spares and virtually indestructible.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Ok, it has a canal, a river, lakes, ponds, lagoons and reservoirs(?) ... Plenty of wet places to dump expensive e-bikes!
