Comments

1

Yeah, but which one are you more likely to trip over walking down the sidewalk?

2

The Jump bikes are much nicer bikes that the Lime Bikes. The brakes work better, they coast better when the motor isn't engaged, etc. All around more solid. But it's good to know how the pricing is incentivized. I expect Lime won't be in this market that much longer unless they let them roll out the scooters. Seems like they're getting out of the bike share business in most of their markets.

3

Except "Jump" bikes are owned by Über, and Über is abusing their "gig economy" drivers by profiting off their backs and using the money to obsolete their own human drivers by investing in Robo-Car technology. That's the thanks you get for making them rich, I guess.

(oh, and Über/Lyft have handily lowered ^all^ taxi-service wages to ~$10/hr by flooding the market with disposable people. Y'know, as ya do.)

4

Honest thanks for doing that cost comparison Lester.

5

Those numbers aren't right. You're comparing the analog lime price to the Uber electric-only price. They're both now 15 cents a minute and a dollar to unlock, but as someone who's logged 276 trips with lime I can tell you their service is trash compared to Uber. Bikes don't unlock but still charge, even after reporting; and if you have an active trip you can't pick up another, so you can be stuck for hours without the ability to rent a bike while still being charged until their customer service tribunal decides you're not a fraud. I would say somewhere around half of their bikes I try to unlock are some unrideable state, either in obvious disrepair, low battery, or inexplicably "not available right now."

6

"Ride a lime, take your time" rule of thumb

7

@5 yikes. That "can't pick up another" rule seems actively dumb and bad -- if they turned that off, and if you did pick up 'a second bike' isn't that in itself a useful signal that you're legit riding this bike, not standing with the un-moving busted one?

8

I suppose I'll have to try the Jump bikes again. The first time I tried to unlock one, the experience left me annoyed and baffled. And when I heard about the $25 charge I decided Uber could go fuck themselves. I saw bikes all the time in Leschi, which was outside the covered zone, and thought of all the poor schmucks who'd been screwed over by that arrogant, idiotic policy.

9

@3: But robo-cars could reduce global warming (Washington Post has an article). You like polar bears more than you hate the rich, right?

10

I really despise Lime. Where I live they are readily available but most of them are not maintained and unrideable. I’ve had the gears be so bad I’ve almost crashed into a group of pedestrians on the trail between the Urban Horticulture Center and UW. I complained to my husband who said that he routinely has to check out at least three bikes before he finds one he can use safely. That’s completely unacceptable and a waste of time. I’ll never use them again.

11

Red is a better color for a sidewalk obstacle.


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