• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Mobike struggles in Manchester, UK because people don't know how to share

The advantage of Mobike is that you don't need a docking station at all. Just use the app to see if a bike is nearby.

Obviously, that comes with the problems described in the article. In Beijing, it's working reasonably well though.
 
A bike rental company that lets you leave the bike wherever you want? Gee what could go wrong.

Any rental system that doesn't involve attaching the bike to special stations will ultimately fail even if it's a wealthy and civilized country.
 
Spuck-uk said:
You all vote Tory, so you're to blame for the state of the country, cheers you soft, wine drinking, weak chinned quasi-frenchmen.


(Seriously the insults are a bit much here).
Click to expand...

I wont have my honour scuffled by you gruff, silly sounding, superfluocious neo-danish tribesmen. Your brains are the equivalent of pomegranetes! I challenge you to a duel. Rapiers at dawn. Have at thee!!

(I'm more likely to throw a tomato at a tory then vote for one btw, we're not all posh cunts)
 
CDX said:
They need to do it like the BIXI system Montreal has, or the CITI system NYC has.

Bike rentals with docking stations. Yeah, it's more infrastructure and slightly less convenient. But it seems like it's a temporary bike rental system that actually works.
Click to expand...

We have that in Paris.

Bikes still get stolen.
 
Mobike themselves said that this is false. They said the vast majority of cases of "vandalism" have been people reporting abandoned bikes on the streets - something that's actually a feature of Mobikes. I think a couple got thrown in the canal and a few had locks stolen off them, but when people realise they're basically worthless that will end.

It has been really successful and at no cost to the taxpayer which is nice.

Also, to anybody that thinks Manchester is shit, it's actually one of the fastest growing economies in Europe with great food, a fantastic nightlife, top class football teams and affordable prices. Come on over and you'll have a great time.
 
Of course a few of them are going to get nicked, especially at this early stage, but hopefully if these schemes become more normalised then this dockless bike hire will be viable

We have a traditional docked cycle hire scheme in Reading, but it's fairly crap. I'd have to walk 15 minutes to my nearest docking station, and my destination would have to happen to be near another dock, which it never is. It's basically only good for Uni students travelling between campus and one of the train stations, as both have docks.
 
Well these bike share problems (bike share hoarder?) are in China too. I don't know which side has higher percentage of vandalism.

However I just want to say this chainring less mechanism is terrible, probably more terrible than solid airless tire.
 
Cardiff should get something like this. It would be really useful, especially getting to the Bay.

Plus, a lot less scumbags (relatively).
 
I'm for caning for graffiti.

Manchester is a great city, with some terrible scumbags. Make the punishment tough and see how many of the cunts stick around or keep being cunts.
 
Classic "why we can't have nice things" scenario.

Sadly docking stations or some other way to ensure return and a decent way to reclaim damages are a must. Too many people just can't be trusted to behave in the ethically and morally appropriate manner - at least in many parts of the UK.

Shame as access to bikes in a city is a great idea in many ways and I think worth having but if the scheme is too easy to abuse it sadly will be (at least until there is social evolution that reduces the incidence level of abuse of such systems).
 
I actually had an idea for an anti-bike-theft system once. A colleague of mine came into work saying his bike had been stolen, and we started spit balling ways to combat it:

We basically decorate the entire bike with very-hard-to-remove plastic penises.

- A giant rubber or glass penis glued into the bit of the frame where you'd traditionally find a water bottle.
- Rubber penis-sheath's over the handle bars to help you grip the handle.
- Decorate penis patterns painted onto the frame.
- Mudguards that look like semi-flacid, curvey horse penises.
- Long thin penis-shaped pump, with a retractible liquid flinger for when you're not using it to blow air.
- A hole in the seat with a hidden switch in the base. When this switch is flicked, the penis shape rises out and falls back in with the pedalling of the bike, much like a sex bike. This switch can be hidden anywhere on the bike to make it awkward for the would be thief to make off with his or her booty. Or possibly pleasurable.

We feel this would make the thief sufficiently embarrassed and the bike significantly harder to sell, to a degree that it'll significantly deter the thief from stealing your bike in the "it doesn't have to be the most secure, just not the least" mentality. Further areas for expansion include biologically accurate vagina add-ons for the pedals and rectum textured valve holes in the tyres.

We hope to start our first round of VC funding pitches shortly.
 
Dont projects like this fail all the time? When I lived on Vancouver Island BC, 20 years ago the government tried the "blue bike" program. A 1000 bikes painted blue that were free to use. It lasted less then 2 weeks before every bike was gone, a lot of teenagers took them cliff jumping. Hundreds of them ended up in the ocean.
 
CyclopsRock said:
I actually had an idea for an anti-bike-theft system once. A colleague of mine came into work saying his bike had been stolen, and we started spit balling ways to combat it:

We basically decorate the entire bike with very-hard-to-remove plastic penises.

- A giant rubber or glass penis glued into the bit of the frame where you'd traditionally find a water bottle.
- Rubber penis-sheath's over the handle bars to help you grip the handle.
- Decorate penis patterns painted onto the frame.
- Mudguards that look like semi-flacid, curvey horse penises.
- Long thin penis-shaped pump, with a retractible liquid flinger for when you're not using it to blow air.
- A hole in the seat with a hidden switch in the base. When this switch is flicked, the penis shape rises out and falls back in with the pedalling of the bike, much like a sex bike. This switch can be hidden anywhere on the bike to make it awkward for the would be thief to make off with his or her booty. Or possibly pleasurable.

We feel this would make the thief sufficiently embarrassed and the bike significantly harder to sell, to a degree that it'll significantly deter the thief from stealing your bike in the "it doesn't have to be the most secure, just not the least" mentality. Further areas for expansion include biologically accurate vagina add-ons for the pedals and rectum textured valve holes in the tyres.

We hope to start our first round of VC funding pitches shortly.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a solid security system. You could take it on Dragon's Den?
 
xrnzaaas said:
A bike rental company that lets you leave the bike wherever you want? Gee what could go wrong.

Any rental system that doesn't involve attaching the bike to special stations will ultimately fail even if it's a wealthy and civilized country.
Click to expand...

It's funny because most of gaf would tell you china is poor and uncivilized. And yet somehow it works.
also china is rich as hell and the people are mostly civilized
 
Mass_Pincup said:
We have that in Paris.

Bikes still get stolen.
Click to expand...

I can only find figures from a years ago but something like 12 bikes were stolen in the first 4 years of operation in the docked bikes in Dublin, which is a small city compared to Paris but has its share of antisocial behaviour.

I assume there's a penalty for stealing the bikes in Paris? In Dublin if you take out a bike and don't return it your card gets charged €150. Seems to do the job.
 
Miles Quaritch said:
Hah! No-one from Bristol should be trash talking Manchester.
Click to expand...

Weyyyyy. We do have some serious grim bits and some absolute scallywags I'll grant you, but as Quiche says, as far as I'm aware apart from the odd isolated bit of vandalism the glorious people of Bristol have taken to YoBike rather well. Getting a lot of usage and being treated as intended I think. I see a lot of them on a daily basis.
 
guia-bilbao-bicis-bilbao-021-512x272.jpg


The ones in my city seem to work pretty well. It's run by the town hall and you need to register and pay a yearly fee before using them. Just that at peak times it may be pretty hard to find an available one.

Anyways, during the town festival and other situations were the people will be much less civic (and more inebriated), the service is not available and the bikes are removed. They track who uses them and at which time, and there is a good list of penalisations if you mess with it (plus you have to give your bank account information before signing up, so I wonder if they may make you pay for a lost bike).
 
this thread has descended to the level of my scumbags in my city are better than your scumbags in your city. Scumbags will scumbag anywhere in unique, scumbag ways
 
xrnzaaas said:
A bike rental company that lets you leave the bike wherever you want? Gee what could go wrong.

Any rental system that doesn't involve attaching the bike to special stations will ultimately fail even if it's a wealthy and civilized country.
Click to expand...
Funny how that systen words in tens of cities in a developing country like China. Just cause people in Manchester are assholes doesn't mean the system is wrong. The system works exactly because there are no docking stations.
 
Mario007 said:
Funny how that systen words in tens of cities in a developing country like China. Just cause people in Manchester are assholes doesn't mean the system is wrong. The system works exactly because there are no docking stations.
Click to expand...
I'm not convinced it isn't working in Manchester either. One article has people rushing in to decry this crazy system that could never work yet Mobike themselves seem pretty happy with the rollout.

These bikes cost pennies to make and I doubt that they assumed there would be no theft or vandalism. There is a £30 deposit to use them here in China and I would assume the same is so in the UK.

Indeed the biggest problem about them here is that where you once got lovely open spaces you now get open spaces jam packed full of thousands of rental bikes.

EDIT: See picture above. Not an uncommon sight.
 
The same happens in China. Those dockless system are going to fail so hard. And they got over a billion in investments lately. Everybody knows it wont work well.
 
ITT: people slagging off Manchester so my rent prices stay down. Good stuff, I want this city to stay off the main stage if possible.
 
CDX said:
They need to do it like the BIXI system Montreal has, or the CITI system NYC has.

Bike rentals with docking stations. Yeah, it's more infrastructure and slightly less convenient. But it seems like it's a temporary bike rental system that actually works.



yep, it looks like Boston has a similar system too.
Click to expand...

Yup it's affordable and the bikes are pretty great for what they are. They're also in great condition.
 
There's a similar system here in Argentina.
They installed a bike dock in the block where i live, one week later and all the bikes are dirty,damaged and painted on.
 
people are cunts

this morning i was turning into a street and noticed a car going super slowly, but he had the right of way so I waited for him to turn in front of me. i could have been a cunt and cut him off as he was going so slowly that I had the time to do it. anyways he is now in front of me and still going slowly (20kmh in a 50 zone), I wait a while, he knows I am behind him as he saw me let him in, then I honk him, either pull over or stop blocking people, so he puts on his indicator, pulls over slightly and lets me go (nice), I over take him and find my parking spot (he was going slowly because he too was looking for a spot), there was no need to go so slowly as I just demonstrated, anyways he gets pissed that I got a spot and honks me... wtf dude, I let you go in front of me then u expect me to drive 20km behind you for god knows how long till you find a parking spot?
 
Liverpool has City Bike, it seems to be doing okay.

https://www.citybikeliverpool.co.uk/

From January 2016
More than 50 Citybike stations have been damaged since Liverpool’s bike hire scheme was launched.

New figures show the green bikes have also been repaired on more than 1,000 occasions as a result of vandalism or wear and tear.

The damage at docking stations has been severe enough for them to be temporarily closed or removed on 11 occasions.

Liverpool council figures, released after an ECHO freedom of information request, show two bikes have been stolen and 10 lost, but eight of the lost bikes have since been recovered.

The figures also highlight how widely used the bikes have been, with 115,000 bikes rented by more than 16,000 different users since its launch in May 2014.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Terrorist attack at synagogue Manchester uk
6 7 8 9 10
476
4K
Go_Ly_Dow replied
UK is bad with their surveillance, Meanwhile in S.Korea
Opinion 
1
180
YCoCg replied
How people think Cavill's Warhammer 40K will work?
34
687
Drake replied
Just turned 40, what to know?
2
69
1K
GnomeChimpsky replied
a question about Stephen King I don't know where to ask
30
1K
SamuraiEdge replied
Top Bottom