Toronto Bike Share

[elcorrerador]

Temperance St

 

[daptive]

That's more relevant for privately owned bikes. For bikeshare, because the bikes are fungible, the superstations are a good solution. It sounds like there just needs to be some process improvement to let people dump bikes more quickly.

They also need to proactively predict when there are popular events and set up superstations on the fly.

Marathon, hockey game, concert and Budweiser… and this point they should have enough data to make these predictions

 

[turbanplanner]

They also need to proactively predict when there are popular events and set up superstations on the fly.

Marathon, hockey game, concert and Budweiser… and this point they should have enough data to make these predictions

I feel like the service has an identity crisis, the pricing and model suggest it's for commuting pretty much just to the core. Obviously there are a lot more use cases though

 

[elcorrerador]

I feel like the service has an identity crisis, the pricing and model suggest it's for commuting pretty much just to the core. Obviously there are a lot more use cases though

Should really have more focus on last mile commute as well.

 

[Northern Light]

They also need to proactively predict when there are popular events and set up superstations on the fly.

Marathon, hockey game, concert and Budweiser… and this point they should have enough data to make these predictions

You raise a worthwhile point here, that I want to expand on just slightly.

In Toronto, governments and many businesses as well are terrible with data analytics, particularly predictive ones.

I really don't understand it.

You see a retailer put something on promo, a promo by the way that's been planned weeks or more likely months in advance, you get to the store on the first day and there isn't any on the shelf or in the back.

Invariably, one of three things is true.

1) The prediction if used at all, to meet demand was erroneous.

2) You hear an excuse about the truck being late or the warehouse shorting the store. Which would be why you don't schedule delivery of an item the day before or the day of a promo, you make sure if the truck is a day late, stuff still arrived on time.

3) Staffing was not scheduled appropriately at the warehouse/logistics or retail level to support the volume of customer demand.

It might surprise some of you and seriously frustrates me, that we have major retailers with billions in revenues that still issue rain cheques by hand, still have manual price tags on shelves and still do employee schedules by hand at the retail level.
What bloody century are we in?

Rant Over, LOL

To bring this back to Bikeshare though, same idea, you need to know when/where your demand is, and you need to schedule accordingly. Proactive, not reactive.

* I"ll throw in one tangentially related thing just to stir people up. The TTC has spent oodles of dollars on 'Vision' a sophisticated system that can track vehicle location and load-factor in real time. It has the data, and even makes some of it available publicly in real time.

But you know what it doesn't do? Actually use the data to adjust service in real time.

 

[turbanplanner]

* I"ll throw in one tangentially related thing just to stir people up. The TTC has spent oodles of dollars on 'Vision' a sophisticated system that can track vehicle location and load-factor in real time. It has the data, and even makes some of it available publicly in real time.

But you know what it doesn't do? Actually use the data to adjust service in real time.

I feel like you don't realize they don't actually care about experience. Only metrics that can look good. Service is up but that's based on vehicle hours which is pointless if the vehicle you're on isn't moving.
Buses are on time but only in terms of leaving the terminal, too bad if you missed your connection because of bunching.

 

[afransen]

1) The prediction if used at all, to meet demand was erroneous.

2) You hear an excuse about the truck being late or the warehouse shorting the store. Which would be why you don't schedule delivery of an item the day before or the day of a promo, you make sure if the truck is a day late, stuff still arrived on time.

3) Staffing was not scheduled appropriately at the warehouse/logistics or retail level to support the volume of customer demand.

I expect that the fundamental error is in #1. It isn't a trivial job. Even if your forecast is often good, sometimes it is very wrong.

2 is probably BS the store tells you because they don't have a better explanation or it is too complex to get into with a customer. High volume items aren't delivered all at once before the promotion, but replenished in progress, which represents its own forecasting challenge.

3. Labour budgets are very tight.

 

[Northern Light]

I expect that the fundamental error is in #1. It isn't a trivial job. Even if your forecast is often good, sometimes it is very wrong.

2 is probably BS the store tells you because they don't have a better explanation or it is too complex to get into with a customer. High volume items aren't delivered all at once before the promotion, but replenished in progress, which represents its own forecasting challenge.

3. Labour budgets are very tight.

I certainly can't speak for every retailer, by a long shot, but I have a pretty good track on some.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

I rode an electric bike that was broken several times in the Midtown area as it was the only bike available the last few days. I got upset of having to keep using this one bike, so when I got to the dock over the weekend, I hit the red repair button hoping that it would be taken away for repairs. That bike than stayed there disabled for over four days, until today it was made available again. I thought it was a different bike at first, but I took it out and it was the same bike.

What is the point of hitting the repair button if they don't even come by to pick up broken bikes? Or like the absolute dearth of bikes in Midtown, is this a problem with Midtown stations being ignored?

It seems like the best thing to do for broken bikes in Midtown, is to use them to bike downtown so they get lost in the sea of downtown bikes and out of the Midtown mix, which is what I intentionally did today, LOL.

 

[Northern Light]

I rode an electric bike that was broken several times in the Midtown area as it was the only bike available the last few days. I got upset of having to keep using this one bike, so when I got to the dock over the weekend, I hit the red repair button hoping that it would be taken away for repairs. That bike than stayed there disabled for over four days, until today it was made available again. I thought it was a different bike at first, but I took it out and it was the same bike.

What is the point of hitting the repair button if they don't even come by to pick up broken bikes? Or like the absolute dearth of bikes in Midtown, is this a problem with Midtown stations being ignored?

It seems like the best thing to do for broken bikes in Midtown, is to use them to bike downtown so they get lost in the sea of downtown bikes and out of the Midtown mix, which is what I intentionally did today, LOL.

Call them out publicly on Twitter or one of their other social media accounts.

My opinion of Bikeshare's management is well known by them. I'll leave it at that.

 

[PL1]

I rode an electric bike that was broken several times in the Midtown area as it was the only bike available the last few days. I got upset of having to keep using this one bike, so when I got to the dock over the weekend, I hit the red repair button hoping that it would be taken away for repairs. That bike than stayed there disabled for over four days, until today it was made available again. I thought it was a different bike at first, but I took it out and it was the same bike.

What is the point of hitting the repair button if they don't even come by to pick up broken bikes? Or like the absolute dearth of bikes in Midtown, is this a problem with Midtown stations being ignored?

It seems like the best thing to do for broken bikes in Midtown, is to use them to bike downtown so they get lost in the sea of downtown bikes and out of the Midtown mix, which is what I intentionally did today, LOL.

I haven't tried yet, but you can report issues with a bike in the app (both new and old, under Ride or Trip History). I plan to do this in the future to give more details than the wrench button on the docks

 

[vic]

I haven't tried yet, but you can report issues with a bike in the app (both new and old, under Ride or Trip History). I plan to do this in the future to give more details than the wrench button on the docks

Yeah, I should try this out as well. There are times when I don't want to put a bike out of service for something minor (e.g. bell not working well, rattling fender, creaky bearings, etc.) but it would be worth noting that it should get fixed.

 

[evandyk]

They’ve got three valets stationed at Bay and King now, which seems to be working well.

Not many people on the e-bikes wearing helmets, which I believe is required by law.

 

[afransen]

They’ve got three valets stationed at Bay and King now, which seems to be working well.

Not many people on the e-bikes wearing helmets, which I believe is required by law.

I think we need to make a distinction between kinds of ebikes. The throttle-activated ones perhaps warrant a helmet. I am less convinced about ped-elecs (pedal assist).

 

[PL1]

I think we need to make a distinction between kinds of ebikes. The throttle-activated ones perhaps warrant a helmet. I am less convinced about ped-elecs (pedal assist).

Maybe, but the requirement is that you wear a helmet with Bike share Ebikes