Lime Bikes

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Snagglefoot

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Dec 31, 2017
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Location
SE British Columbia, Canada
So I tried out one of those E Assist Lime Bikes are are popping up across cities in North America. I loaded the app and then loaded $20 bucks from my credit card. I got my chance to use one this morning. After having breakfast with some friends I was walking along the river bank across the river from downtown in Calgary. I came across a parked bike. I took out my phone, hit the Lime app and " photographed" the bar code. The clamp on the real wheel unlocked automatically and I took off. The bikes have GPS so they are easy to locate.

The bike is a bit heavier due to the batteries. There are hand brakes for the front and back wheels. There is no throttle and no shifter. The energy applied to the rear drive wheel is proportional to rotational speed while peddling. You have to peddle to get power. You can definitely feel that power was being applied. I rode a mile to downtown Calgary. My average speed was 10 miles per hour.

At the end, I hopped off the bike and slid the clamp to the off position. The app notified me that the trip cost $1.00 to unlock the bike and $1.80 to ride for the 6 minutes required to cover the 1 mile. ( $0.30 per minute.) The one dollar charge was actually refunded as it was my first trip.

All in all, a pleasant experience. Here are some shots. Enjoy. www.li.me



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A bunch of Lime bikes popped up in Columbus, OH in 2017 but disappeared and were replaced by electric scooters.
They weren't E-Bikes though.
We have Lime and Bird scooters. I have the Lime app on my phone and got a free $3 credit I should use sometime.
 
Originally Posted by blupupher
So you just leave them wherever when done?
No charging station to park them at or pick them up at?


Yep, same deal with Bird scooters too. There are people who sign up with Bird that find their scooters and charge them up at night, they get paid per scooter that they find and charge up.

One day maybe cars will be like that. Some cheap base model you just hope in and drive.
 
We had some of the Scooters up here in Cleveland as well. People kept falling off of them and the company that made them available was not registered with the City, Thus, they were eventually pulled from service.
 
Seems too expensive to me unless they are literally everywhere. I mean if I were to take a bike, I'd want to park it at my destination and have some assurance there is a bike to use to get back to my prior destination without a lot of walking even if there's an app that tells me where the closest one is, otherwise I'd have to pay for minutes where I have it stowed away somewhere that only I can use it?

I guess I'm just used to urban buses and am comparing against bus fare where you can go very far for less money. Otherwise a used plain old bike can be bought and owned for well under $100.
 
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These things litter the streets here. I guess you just leave them wherever and the app tells you where the nearest one is? I see them in random places, including the sidewalk outside my house!
 
They trialed the scooters in Auckland for a few months, it didn't go down well. 10 people a day reporting in juries from Lime scooters, mainly random rear brake lock ups. They were abandoned everywhere it was possible for the most inconvenience, all over the footpath, in parking spaces and even in the middle of the road. They hope to sharpen up their act and try again, but it's not going to change the way they are used.
 
Travel options in Calgary include Lime bike, bus, C-train ( light rail transit), Car to Go, Uber, and conventional cabs. Unlike some cities, the bus and C Train are perfectly fine. It's way too cold in the winter for Lime bikes. Yeah, I know there are some die-hards out there but not enough to support the business. Maybe, they'll move the bikes south in the winter. Sort of like most birds.
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted by Wolf359
Originally Posted by blupupher
So you just leave them wherever when done?
No charging station to park them at or pick them up at?


Yep, same deal with Bird scooters too. There are people who sign up with Bird that find their scooters and charge them up at night, they get paid per scooter that they find and charge up.

One day maybe cars will be like that. Some cheap base model you just hope in and drive.


You just described Car 2 Go. www.car2go.com. They are all over here. Smart car
Cars as a base and two models of base four door Mercedes Benz.
 
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Originally Posted by Dave9
Seems too expensive to me unless they are literally everywhere. I mean if I were to take a bike, I'd want to park it at my destination and have some assurance there is a bike to use to get back to my prior destination without a lot of walking even if there's an app that tells me where the closest one is, otherwise I'd have to pay for minutes where I have it stowed away somewhere that only I can use it?

I guess I'm just used to urban buses and am comparing against bus fare where you can go very far for less money. Otherwise a used plain old bike can be bought and owned for well under $100.


I think the point is that it's an electric bike, not some beat up old bike. I suppose it would be convenient in a few places where you're not that close to the bus or train, but you could ride a bike there in a few minutes and you just leave it outside the train/bus station. Someone else going the opposite way can also use it. As opposed to just have a bike locked up in one spot all day and risk getting it stolen. When you get back from your trip, there's enough bikes that there will still be some other bike there that you can grab. You only pay for the minutes that you actually use.
 
It seems these things are popping up everywhere and not just banks of them in urban environments. My late mom's neighborhood is deep in suburbia with many retired people living in the neighborhood and there was a single Lime bike parked about every four blocks.

With the "scooter wars" and the losses they take, I'm not sure I'd want to be in that business... but it's interesting that these bikes are becoming pervasive in areas you'd think they wouldn't show up in. They pulled over 50 of these bikes and scooters from the bottom of Lake Merritt in Oakland recently so I'd be interested to see the loss / damage percentage. The Ford bikes in San Francisco seem to be pretty well maintained and checked with flat tires fixed and minor maintenance happening quickly. I'm sure they'll lose their license to operate or get fined if they don't.
 
The logic behind this business model (Bird, Lime, etc etc) is to solve the last mile commute with public transit problem.

People with regular short distance commute will buy their own bike instead of renting for $4 a day.
People who work and live next to a big transit (train bus subway etc) will just take it.
People who work and live in rural area with no commute congestion will drive.

People who need that missing 1 mile on either way (mainly the work side) will pick up one when they get to the train station, park it at the office during work hour, and ride it back and drop it at the train station. They can't get it on the train and they don't have to worry about parking it inside.

The problem is the parking and maintenance, it is better than car parking but you are still parking it on the street randomly (so it is a good last mile commute solution), at the expense of public space. It is also an easy victim of vandalism and lawsuit magnet (assuming they have enough money to be sued), or target of politicians trying to make a name (local supervisor or district representative). Most of these businesses are hoping to get enough momentum and get acquired by the bigger commute businesses to be bundled (i.e. Uber or Lyft buying Lime or Bird).
 
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