CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
I haven't used the bikes as much recently since I bought my own but they're very handy for one way trips (or when you've missed the bus!). Not sure if I'd pay £90 so might wait until there's a Black Friday style deal for £45 like last year.
Perhaps if this promised expansion actually occurs in the next few weeks I might change my mind!
@davecykl
when trying to lock the bike wheel, but you need to press the button on the bike handlebar first to release the lock
You are not "stating the obvious". It is not at all clear in the app instructions that you need to do this.
It’s also not required
When I tap 'end trip here' it usually just says 'communicating with bike' (or words to that effect) and then asks me to lock the bike - that's the point the lever can sometimes fail to budge.
The only time it asks me to press the button on the bike is when collecting the bike.
Similar to CycleAlex, £45 I've been happy with for my light usage. I don't think I'd pay £90. Perhaps some sort of tiered subscription could be a future option. Or pay in advance for a chunk of mileage? Surely lots of ways they could do the pricing model given the extensive stats they are hopefully collecting.
I passed a peleton of hire bikes at Maybury earlier, perhap s 8 to 10 of them. It only occured to me later in my ride that they were stationary and of foreign appearance so probably wondering what on earth happens to the cycle path after you get to Maybury from Ingleston.
Good to see a large number out together though.
@earthowned & @davecykl Thanks both, but I've tried the whole rotating the wheel thing. I've managed to lock bikes at virtual docks lots of time (the nearest dock to home is one, so I get plenty of practice), but sometimes it just doesn't want to lock.
Agree the tabs without the plastic cover don't help.
@Snowy "When I tap 'end trip here' it usually just says 'communicating with bike' (or words to that effect) and then asks me to lock the bike - that's the point the lever can sometimes fail to budge. " <-Yep, it's exactly this situation. IIRC, the bike lights are flashing in a way that indicates it's ready to lock, but the lever doesn't budge, even after spinning the front wheel a few times.
One of the bike team fellas told me that they sometimes lock better when the front wheel is pointing straight ahead. Not sure why that would be the case.
There had been a couple of occasions for me where the lock lever wouldn't move at first when trying to park/lock, and pressing the handlebar button seemed to release it, so I just got into the habit of doing it; but maybe it was coincidence, not causation?!
The handlebar button must have some sort of sonic-screwdriver-like powers for sure: the range of colours and bleeps that it can emit are quite impressive - has anybody worked out what they all mean? :)
I've taken to crouching down before virtually docking - there's an audible catch release once it's communicated with the server and actually ready for locking (as opposed to just the screen saying so).
As for the magic button, I think that holding it down for a couple of seconds forces a communication with the server. I've found it can remedy an unresponsive bike (e.g. failing to register as returned from a physical dock) - it could of course just be fixing itself after waiting longer!
Took them a while but the dock at Newkirkgate is now back (right at the end of the Fringe...)
Maybe this is how they're going to meet their expansion target, close the popular stations then re-launch them a few weeks later!
As an update to my locking issues, I had a couple of hires over the weekend and both locked fine, one after having to spin the front wheel first. The ease with which they locked confirmed that there had been something wrong either mechanically or app-ily on those previous occasions where it didn't work.
The only issue encountered over the weekend was the app's failure to speak to the bikes at the City Chambers or Torn Kirk docks - presumably because the mobile bandwidth was getting pounded by all the instagramming going on in the Royal Mile at the height of the Festival.
Oh, and the common(non-burgerbike-specific) problem of some impatient fool desperate to overtake me on the steepest bit of Arthur's Seat. He wasn't taking my primary for the answer as he nosed his way past, saving himself the 15 seconds it would have taken me to get up to the parking spaces and allow him to pass safely with plenty of room...
I don’t see Newkirkgate in the app yet despite being reported above
"He wasn't taking my primary for the answer as he nosed his way past, saving himself the 15 seconds it would have taken me to get up to the parking spaces and allow him to pass safely with plenty of room..."
We must have different notions of "primary PS" It would be impossible for a car to overtake me riding up there in primary. Even Police Scotland would vouch for that as I ignored their engine revving :-)
On that bit of Arthur's Seat I tend to ride a good metre and a half out from the kerb on the assumption that drivers will recognise that there isn't really room to pass. If they don't get that message, as on Sunday, then I pull a right shoulder check which combines clear acknowledgement that I know they are there with a natural move of 50cm to a metre towards the middle of the lane.
50com from my rear wheel, this fool still wasn't taking any of that, and I feared for his engine by the sounds of whatever gear he was failing to drive in, so I decided discretion was the better part of valour in this instance.
Kudos for taking a burger bike up Arthur's Seat!
Barrier was across the High Road yesterday afternoon - made a nice change.
@Klaxon Hmm, seems it's been removed again!
South Trinity Road has been added back today. Hopefully the start of the closed docks making a comeback.
Does this mean Just Eat Bikes will now be allowed to put their bikes outside Haymarket station?
A pity the scheme has been axed. I've only ever seen a handful of folk using the bikes in Edinburgh. The ones at Dundee station just gathered dust as far as I could see. It wasn't really advertised or promoted: as a consequence it is a surprise they had 2,000 users signed up.
The bikes themselves are decent Dutch style city steeds: might we see a few appearing on the second hand market soon?
The almost identical BBC article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-49509321 has this additional paragraph:
"This includes ongoing work with commercial cycle hire schemes to locate cycle hire facilities at our stations."
Which makes much more sense, jumping on one of the Burger Bikes and using the existing platform.
Brunswick St is currently missing off the system
Suggest it may have been disabled due to mobile data problems as I have had troubles there recently with bikes not responding.
It's one of the original docks and has worked fine up until now
Official reply ‘Closed for 30 days due to vandalism’
This is an original dock that has an established user base, including myself, and is very well overlooked.
They can forget a renewal next year - which strangely enough is coming up in the next 30 days
@Klaxon: Oh, but it's OK, you have another station you can use just a couple of minutes' walk away at the other end of Brunswick Street… Ah, no, you can't, because they removed that one after just a couple of weeks as well (which is a shame, as it would also be useful-ish for interchange with buses at Elm Row). (Yes, there is also a station at the far end of Hillside Crescent, but that's getting to be too far away to be within convenient walking distance.)
I think that all of us who are unhappy at the slow growth of the system (and zero-notice removals: the Pleasance site has just evaporated with no notice given to users, which would be unacceptable for any other business) should post to them on Twitter, to show that there is a user base, but that they also need to improve their side of the deal for the system to continue to improve and grow (both in terms of places served and in increasing users).
I just don't get the management there. Surely they could at least send a message/tweet about closures/dock movements rather than allow people to turn up expecting to get a bike!
@davecykl The Pleasance dock was installed with money from Sustrans so bemused at why it's been removed.
In fact, several of the docks that are meant to be launched in September with support from Sustrans previously existed as virtual docks. Would be cynical to think they were closed since they thought they could get some free cash... (list here)
£40 annual membership for Edinburgh Uni staff and students although I don't see anything obvious to stop anyone else from using this: https://edinburghcyclehire.com/buy/uni-pass
Spotted on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EdUniTransport/status/1169900934068981760
I had two seamless undocks yesterday, breaking the perfect run of problems-when-in-a-rush. Docking was less seamless - despite hearing the docking jingle when I returned the first one it took the app ten minutes to realise, allowing me to go to the shop I had popped to and head to another dock for the return journey before it went from "you already have a bike" to "unlock bike".
Brunswick Place is back as a virtual dock. Bit weird to reopen as a virtual if it was closed for vandalism reasons?
Just watched two school kids (early teens) from my eyrie in techcube 'borrow' two just eat bikes from the sciennes station. A parking cone hit hard against the top release will push it out of the dock it seems.
The virtual dock at the EICC is now a physical station.
I think they ll need to find a way to lock the front wheel on the physical stations as they do seem too easy to purloin
My subscription is coming to an end soon and swithering about renewing now, or holding off for a while to see if there's any discounts. As I use these bikes way more than my own it's tricky balance between potential discounts and increased costs due to extra bus journeys.
The obvious answer is to use my own bike but it needs some repairs and parts. The right thing to do is to fix up my own bike and hold out til there's a Black Friday/Bike Day type discount
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