CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 16years 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.
Given the inordinate rush to the finish line on a provider appointment that CEC has previously shown little impetus for, you'd almost think someone high up at CEC had 'implement replacement cycle hire provider by Q4 2025' on their annual appraisal goals...
That's generally how these things happen in the private and public spheres
I think the rush was prompted by two things; some of the providers in the running saying they needed a busy festival period to subsidise running a pilot in Edinburgh the rest of the year, and committing to festival season ‘25 in the media / publicly. And then Voi won it whose peak time is Sept/Oct and struggling to make it work with resources they already have.
Seeing more bikes pop up on the map fully charged which lends some credence to my thinking it’s a staffing issue more than anything else.
I suppose the positive slant is that if the bikes have a ~100km range when fully charged (seems optimistic but that's what the app says) and they're needing charged nearly every day then that's a good indication that they're actually being used.
Let's assume 75% of charge per bike used per day x 50 bikes = ~3,750km/day of bike usage that wouldn't necessarily be happening otherwise.
For some reason the app has switched to showing me "minutes' walk away" against the closest bike, rather than the usual distance in metres. Conversely, I'd find "minutes' remaining travel with lights on" a useful option during the dark end of the year rather than the distance. Also on the list of things I'd try and get the app to do if it was mine would be to have the map show how much of the rest of the city a particular bike might be able to reach with power asistance once the charge is low enough to potentially not reach the rest of the city, bearing in mind the gradients involved, potential waits at lights and so on.
Reports on this Reddit thread about miscreants already circumventing the locks and taking bikes.
something something total protonic reversal
"minutes' remaining travel with lights on"
Modern LED lights won't make a significant dent in the battery these things are using.
I have tried to use them about +10 times now:
3 times bikes at parking spot but not usable, (bikes not showing on app).
2 times highly successful, Mon evening home to Atholl Cres in 11 mins (up Dundas) was particularity glorious.
1 time got a bike, but it was unroadworthy, e-assist cutting out 50% of the time, and off-hiring itself multiple times when at lights and even once as I was going down Howe St.
too many times - none available.
I like them, but fear for them. Am sure the availability issues will get resolved over time, but the malicious damage will defo be an issue.
One very annoying thing with the app is that once you have a bike hired, the map no longer shows other available bikes. So if you want to swap it (see 3rd point), then the only way is to off-hire the bike, look at app, rehire bike and cycle to it and hope its there when you get there. Issue there is unless you take and post the parking pic, you get dinged for failed parking attempt.
One very annoying thing with the app is that once you have a bike hired, the map no longer shows other available bikes. So if you want to swap it (see 3rd point), then the only way is to off-hire the bike, look at app, rehire bike and cycle to it and hope its there when you get there. Issue there is unless you take and post the parking pic, you get dinged for failed parking attempt.
The funny thing about that is they've catered to swapping bikes with the 'free unlock another bike within x minutes' countdown when you've parked up; but it's obviously set for somewhere with a big enough fleet that finding a bike to swap to isn't the logistical issue we have here.
Now back up to twenty, fully-charged bikes spread across the city…
Mrs Morningsider's quest to use a Voi bike continues. So far the two bikes at the top of Bruntsfield Links are unavailable due to low battery.
That's three days on the trot at that spot.
Allegedly one with some charge there just now. Maybe leave a note pinned to a pole at the parking zone asking people who are ending their journeys there to put in a bit more effort so that they leave a bit more charge?
For all that the Just Eat scheme was slow and ropey at the start, there was plenty of data about rides and bikes visible on the accompanying website and they had an actual human representative signing in to local cycling forums and answering questions.
30 ‘available’
TEN parked at Pollock
Something is working!
32 to 33 this morning and all look to be at 75% charge or beyond. I note the 10 at Pollock have saturated that parking spot so it’s turned red.
It would be interesting to see if that caused any additional ended journeys at that spot to be classed as improperly parked, and whether the 10+ is a global setting for VOI or a specific limit for that spot. I have an actual human agent on the app chat at the moment (after one bike with skewed handlebars and another with duff brakes remained available after being reported at the end of a ride yesterday) so I'll ask.
Still 10 at Pollick
So, 10 students (probably) cycled home last night. Everyone who wanted to or just those who could find a bike?
1/3 of those available end up in the same place. Clearly that campus needs more than one parking place.
Currently (estimate) about 7 in use.
No definitive answer - "the parking spot you mentioned can only accommodate ten vehicles", "In this case, users can check the other parking spots nearby that are not at full capacity to end the ride" and "Leaving a vehicle outside the mandatory parking spot may lead to a penalty to users, and we do not want that to happen" but they didn't confirm if that spot would cease to be a parking zone for an in-progress ride, didn't confirm if leaving a bike there would be flagged as improperly-ended and didn't say whether "10" is a standard spot capacity, or one locally agreed for VOI in Edinburgh, or the limit for that specific location. The agent then bailed before I could go back to the "can't see alternative bikes on the app map whilst a ride is in progress if you need to swap for a better one" question.
Pollock down to 9
Maybe 8 on move in Ed
App currently showing 37, and no ‘fence’.
There are still 2 bikes ‘outside’ - where they were all day yesterday.
Strangely none at Pollock.
Who knows…
My guess with Pollock was ten students set out for their Friday nights on Voi bikes, and all of them were too pickled to use them for the return journey ;)
‘’Fence’ back - no bikes outside
27
Made up figure
100 hires a day?
Did they turn the fence off briefly to let the two strays be ridden back inside with power assistance?
You must log in to post.
Cycling in Edinburgh Flickr group
Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin
posts