Saturday 31 October 2009

French Ideal of Bicycle-Sharing Meets Reality - NYTimes.com

French Ideal of Bicycle-Sharing Meets Reality - NYTimes.com
But this latest French utopia has met a prosaic reality: Many of the specially designed bikes, which cost $3,500 each, are showing up on black markets in Eastern Europe and northern Africa. Many others are being spirited away for urban joy rides, then ditched by roadsides, their wheels bent and tires stripped. With 80 percent of the initial 20,600 bicycles stolen or damaged, the program’s organizers have had to hire several hundred people just to fix them. And along with the dent in the city-subsidized budget has been a blow to the Parisian psyche.

Tuesday 27 October 2009

new map with clustering

I changed the map on http://api.bicingwatch.com/api/station_map a bit to make it load faster and more useful. Instead of always showing all stations directly it groups stations in areas and shows the number of stations in that cluster. Check out the link to see it in action.

Monday 19 October 2009

Mapa de los 75 ‘bicing’ de España | ecomovilidad.net · Transporte público y movilidad urbana sostenible

Mapa de los 75 ‘bicing’ de España | ecomovilidad.net · Transporte público y movilidad urbana sostenible
Aunque en Madrid nos acaban de anunciar nuestro sistema público de alquiler de bicis, no es ni mucho menos una idea pionera. Hasta 75 ciudades de nuestro país cuentan con estos sistemas en sus calles desde hace años, tanto grandes capitales como pequeñas poblaciones que unidas en mancomunidad se organizan para llevarlos a cabo.

Wednesday 14 October 2009

bicing fail

I haven't had this for a while, but today it happened again.

I tried to use a bicycle in the morning (station #27), but the bike was broken so I placed it back into the anchor. Then the station started blinking yellow and blocked the bike. There was no functional bike left, so the station said so. When I hold my card against the reader I was told that I already had a bike.

When I arrived at work by foot I contacted bicing, I also send them photos of the bicycle and station. Even though I did so they still charged me 10.50 Euro for 4h 5m. Thank god it isn't that much, but I can understand how people are angry if it happens often.

In the end it was not my fault, but the cause of a broken bicycle and a station not working correctly. The other problem was the slow reaction time, I contacted them in the first two hours, not after four.

Maybe they should raise the yearly fee instead of introducing these hidden costs.

Friday 9 October 2009

avui.cat: Ciutat Vella llança un SOS per la inseguretat i el Bicing s’ensorra

Ciutat Vella llança un SOS per la inseguretat i el Bicing s’ensorra: "Però la sorpresa en la valoració del que ha empitjorat se l’endú una de les estrelles del mandat de Jordi Hereu, el servei municipal de Bicing, que registra un fort descontentament en relació amb la valoració que va rebre l’any passat. Un 26,6% de ciutadans (onze punts menys que el 2008) creuen que el servei ha millorat, mentre que un 17,6% (sis punts més que el 2008) creuen que ha empitjorat." People are not happy with bicing: 26.6% of people (eleven points less than in 2008) believe that the service has improved, while 17.6% (six points more than in 2008) believe they have worsened.

Wednesday 7 October 2009

BBC - London - London's new hire bike unveiled

BBC - London - London's new hire bike unveiled: "BBC London has been given the first look at the capital's new hire bike. If all goes to plan, 6,000 of them will be parked on 400 docking stations next summer." One nice thing compared to Barcelona: "The bikes will be available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year" Lets see how they cope with vandalism.

Monday 5 October 2009

New bikes

Some bicing spotting: noticed some > #16000 bikes today. Still all shiny and with only small modifications. I noticed new seat clamps and a protection bar for the gear box at the rear axle.