Dockless bikes: Are they bad for station-based bike-sharing systems?

Re:Dockless bikes: Are they bad for station-based bike-shari... by Fnoord on Sunday June 03, 2018 @06:22AM (#17218878)

For some context on how bicycle sharing system was started/invented, it is from '70s Amsterdam. That incarnation was dockless and publicly owned. See Wikipedia "wittefietsenplan" (white bicycle plan, use translator) [1] or e.g. this UK song about it [2] by the band Tomorrow. This English Wikipedia article also contains some history about bicycle sharing system [3]

Recently it has finally been more broadly adopted (though also with a variant, the station-based bikes). One major advantage of station-based bikes is availability. You know beforehand where you can grab one (possibly using a mobile phone to see if they're available on the spot), and can plan accordingly. Dockless can compete with that availability via sheer volume though.

[1] https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittefietsenplan

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_White_Bicycle

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle-sharing_system

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Re:Dockless bikes: Are they bad for station-based bike-shari... by jillesvangurp on Monday June 04, 2018 @01:55AM (#17225015)

Dockless bikes can be found as well via an app. I use mobike in Berlin. They have a map in their app that you can use in the unlikely case there aren't multiple bikes in visual range.

Berlin has a ridiculous amount of competing bike share companies. Multiple companies put many thousands of them on the street. Docking is not an option at that scale.

The article seems to imply some inherent advantage of the docked variety that I just don't see. Also despite success and excellent safety numbers the article is calling for regulations. Why?

From my point of view, dockless is clearly winning in Berlin. Getting people moving is a good thing. Ensuring every steet corner has plenty of bikes means grabbing one is a no brainer.

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