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u/FancyThing8889 9h ago
Nature is truly healing. Here we see a pod of wild rental bikes returning to their natural habitat to spawn
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u/chino17 7h ago
This is why we can't have nice things
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u/deal_with_it_ted 2h ago
I don't think these bikes are nice things. Companies use them to undercut public transportation and then increase the prices once there are fewer viable options. They also spend zero money on actual infrastructure to integrate them well in to cities. On my city they fill up all of the public bike parking so my bike can't fit anywhere. They overflow on to sidewalks. We can't have nice things because we live in a capitalist society where companies don't give a shit about people's loved experience and just look for a way to make another buck.
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u/GMAN7007 1h ago
While your right these bikes everywhere are annoying. Throwing lithium ion batteries in a river or any waterway is just as bad as having the bikes in the first place.
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u/heylilsharty 1h ago
The fact that they’re littering your city’s bike parking and walkways is merely a regulatory issue. Bike share certainly doesn’t undercut public transportation; in fact, they are a last-mile solution that augments public transportation. The ideal bike shares are implemented through public-private partnerships. Rarely do public entities have the infrastructure to implement their own bike shares. They also benefit tremendously from economies of scale such that some private is simply necessary. But the close public partnership helps with the regulatory issues.
You know what’s actually undercutting public transportation, littering our public spaces, getting tremendous public subsidies, and taking up incommensurate space? Cars. The problem is absolutely 10000000% not the bike share.
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u/deal_with_it_ted 1h ago
I live in the Netherlands and we actually have publicly funded bike share here, so these bikes are definitely undercutting this with their "sign on" deals and flash discounts. I accept that this is a unique situation, but other options exist for last mile transportation than forfeiting government funding and our own money to a private company for a public service. But also yes, cars suck!!
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u/heylilsharty 1h ago
I think the Netherlands is probably like 99th percentile on robustness of the public sector and functional urbanism so for sure the gold standard. I’d be opposed in your situation, too. Anywhere in the US is relegated to public-private solutions in the transportation sector for a long time thanks to decades and decades of public sector gutting in all respects.
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u/pandabearak 1h ago
Who are these mystical companies that are out to get us? Are they in the house?
I think we did this to ourselves. Having bikes to rent easily is a good thing. Instead of investing in infrastructure and public transportation, we invested in cheap goods from east Asia and missiles for sale. It’s our own fault - not some secret society of companies.
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u/Jernhesten 1h ago
No, they are not in the house. They are blocking the bike lane.
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u/pandabearak 5m ago
(Insert skinner meme)
Is it my poor choices in voting for politicians for 50 years?
No, it’s the phantom secret society of corporations to blame!
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u/middleupperdog 53m ago
that may be a cause of some discordance on the issue. Where I live, the rental bikes ARE public transportation and heavily regulated.
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u/Pubs01 5h ago
nah. People are assholes with rechargeable bikes. zero respect for others. left everywhere, all over trails. throw that shot in the garbage with waymo
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u/hartstyler 4h ago
Another reason why we cant have nice things.
These bikes could be a nice thing to have access to•
u/prozach_ 4h ago
While I agree with the sentiment I fail to see how rechargeable bikes in the waters is a better alternative.
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u/Elisabet_Sobeck 4h ago
I want automated cars. Maybe old people will stop driving into their 80s if it becomes mainstream and affordable.
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u/Larkson9999 4h ago
Perhaps you meant to write buses and trains.
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u/No-Faithlessness4294 3h ago
Autonomous cars are a good solution to the last-mile problem.
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u/bandjalah 3h ago
Stop having buses only have a couple stops every mile or so... in dense areas there should be a stop every hundred meters/yards or so.
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u/muffinthumper 1h ago
But I do not live off crowded thoroughfare, I live about 5 miles away from where a bus would stop. So again, autonomous cars are a fantastic solution for the last mile problem.
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u/CurrentlyLucid 7h ago
Good ideas do not work with bad people.
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u/GravyPainter 1h ago
I honestly hate seeing kids whizzing by on these things at high speeds and occasionally dipping in and out of traffic.
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u/Brewe 6h ago
Flooding cities, where most people already own bikes, with countless rentable bikes is not a good idea. It can become a good idea when there are dedicated spaces for them to be parked/charged. Otherwise they just infest everything. They had this in my city before the privatized rentables became a thing, and it was soo much better.
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u/BoringBob84 3h ago
cities, where most people already own bikes
... and few places to park those bikes without getting them stolen.
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u/DogtariousVanDog 6h ago
You have it backwards. It only works if you can park it anywhere and it DOESN‘T work with dedicated parking spaces. Then they become useless. If you can park them anywhere they will organically distributed to where people mostly need them which is a perfect extension of public transport.
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u/JustFourLetters 5h ago
the only thing is, if there’s no etiquette for parking, they easily become disruptive. dedicated spaces are the answer for the simple fact that it’s the only way to minimally affect the majority that don’t use them and therefore becomes more likely to not have the program aborted
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u/Frederf220 4h ago
There is etiquette. I have it. There's nothing about the current infrastructure that is a problem. If everyone was like me they'd all be lined up in a neat row.
The conclusion is that this happens is because people suck.
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u/keestie 3h ago
Well, not everyone is responsible, and the infrastructure needs to account for people as they are. So yes, the infrastructure is wrong.
Focusing on the things that you can change is vital for both effective city infrastructure, and good mental health.
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u/Frederf220 3h ago
I get it. When the tendencies of humanity and infrastructure clash it is infrastructure which must change, not that it's wrong but that the other is by far the more intransigent one.
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u/IceNein 3h ago
Etiquette is the set of rules, customs, and conventional guidelines that govern accepted and polite behavior within a specific society, group, or social situation.
You can’t have etiquette. A society can have etiquette, and you can then follow the etiquette.
What you are describing is a personal moral code that you alone follow.
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u/Drugbird 3h ago
It only works if you can park it anywhere
In my city there are a few places where it's illigal to park your bike, and if you do your bike will be removed and you need to pay a fine to get it back.
These places are absolutely swarmed with rental bikes because their users don't give a duck what happens to the bike afterwards.
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u/Brewe 6h ago
sure, But it worked in Aarhus and it worked in London - not sure where else had such a system. And also anywhere-parking rentals is when it fucks with the people who actually live in the city. And any day, anywhere, I'll prioritize locals over visitors.
Assuming you're a driver, how would you feel if there were suddenly 20% more cars in the city, taking up parking spaces?
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u/DogtariousVanDog 6h ago
We have both in my city and one works, the other stays unused. Because no one needs a bike that they can only park in specific places - then they use their own bike.
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u/Brewe 5h ago
Well sure, having a system that slightly inconveniences visitors and doesn't fucks with locals, and then also having a system that's convenient for visitors, but fucks with locals. When both are available, I wonder which system visitors will use?
Having both systems is even worse than just having the park-anywhere rentals.
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u/Pietrocity 5h ago
How else do you recharge the eels
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u/SalvadorP 3h ago
stfu. the eels have been recharging for centuries with the batteries that we throw in the trash
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u/Tyken132 3h ago
I see what they're trying to do... But there's no way those batteries aren't leaking toxic chemicals into the water
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u/Jernhesten 1h ago
They have to be punctured first. Lithium batteries are sealed. If they are puntured they will poison water.
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u/EvilDan69 2h ago
I went to Toronto Island in July. About as many of those bicycles were in the water as well.
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u/iamwatchingyounsabec 23m ago
It's hard work throwing ebikes into the stream, but if I don't do it who would throw ebikes into the stream?
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u/petermadach 7h ago
creating artificial reefs, providing habitat to animals is nice, I like this idea
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u/smk666 9h ago
Voi vittu.