Thread: Velib in Paris
View Single Post
Old 11-07-14 | 02:24 PM
  #5  
noglider's Avatar
noglider
aka Tom Reingold
Titanium Club Membership
15 Anniversary
Community Builder
Community Influencer
 
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 44,222
Likes: 6,480
From: New York, NY, and High Falls, NY, USA

Bikes: 1962 Rudge Sports, 1971 Raleigh Super Course, 1971 Raleigh Pro Track, 1974 Raleigh International, 1975 Viscount Fixie, 1982 McLean, 1996 Lemond (Ti), 2002 Burley Zydeco tandem

Originally Posted by Darth Lefty
People tend to get bikes at the top of hills and ride them down, then not return, so there's feature of the system that if you ride a bike significantly uphill, you get credit.
They should do that here, not with hills but with against-the-flow commuting. I don't mean riding against traffic. I mean we have a big problem with Citibike, NYC's bike share program, which happens to use the same bikes as Velib. The problem is that some stations don't have bikes because they are popular pick-up spots. Others are full, because they are popular drop-of spots. It's similar to the parking problem in cities and to crowded subways on popular routes. Someone just mentioned they should have incentive pricing. I don't know how we should implement it, but I like the idea. They started out balancing the bikes with trucks, and they still do that. But trucks can't slip through traffic, and traffic in NYC is insane. So now they also have bikes towing trailers, where the trailer can hold four bikes. Imagine having that job all day long, balancing the docking stations on a bike.
__________________
Tom Reingold, tom@noglider.com
New York City and High Falls, NY
Blogs: The Experienced Cyclist; noglider's ride blog

“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author

Please email me rather than PM'ing me. Thanks.
noglider is offline  
Reply