user-to-user bike-share transfers
07-30-15, 02:56 PM
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user-to-user bike-share transfers
After having the chance to observe urban bike-share systems this summer, I have decided they are a good idea. Pricing them by the minute or half-hour is a good way to stimulate use but it occurred to me that it would also be possible for users to directly solicit bikes from other users by putting scannable codes and/or numbers on the bikes that could be entered manually into an app that registers the time when the bike gets transferred from one user to another.
To avoid the hassle of communicating when you're ready to give up your bike, the bikes could be equipped with little flags that indicate visually when a user is receptive to others hailing them for their bike. Then, when you are nearing your destination, you just raise the flag and if you're lucky someone will hail you and you can pass the bike to that user instead of finding a docking station.
Is this feasible? Has anyone seen bike share systems that allow user-to-user transfers? If so, how do they work?
To avoid the hassle of communicating when you're ready to give up your bike, the bikes could be equipped with little flags that indicate visually when a user is receptive to others hailing them for their bike. Then, when you are nearing your destination, you just raise the flag and if you're lucky someone will hail you and you can pass the bike to that user instead of finding a docking station.
Is this feasible? Has anyone seen bike share systems that allow user-to-user transfers? If so, how do they work?
07-30-15, 03:02 PM
#2
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I think the short term pricing is also meant as a theft deterrent. It motivates people to lock up the bike as soon as they're done with it, rather than lean it against a building or something for short time periods. I don't know if what you're describing would interfere with this or not.
But welcome back to LCF! I missed you the last few weeks.
But welcome back to LCF! I missed you the last few weeks.
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07-30-15, 04:49 PM
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How would the first person guarantee that the second person would put the bike back?
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07-30-15, 05:27 PM
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I think the short term pricing is also meant as a theft deterrent. It motivates people to lock up the bike as soon as they're done with it, rather than lean it against a building or something for short time periods. I don't know if what you're describing would interfere with this or not.
But welcome back to LCF! I missed you the last few weeks.
Sorry to read your health is preventing you from doing all the biking you're wanting to. For me it's been a very active summer, happily The users use an app to register the transfer. The second user could enter the bike's code and assume responsibility for it that way instead of checking it out from a docking station. The first user could use the app to see if the transfer was registered before giving the bike away. You could get a text message telling you that your share-bike was taken over by another user. That way you would know you were no longer responsible for the bike.
