City unsatisfied with Lime scooter rollout
The city is not best pleased with the chaotic rollout of the Lime scooters, but as I recall, the introduction of Bixi was also attended with worries about its effects on our streets. I retrieved and docked two abandoned Bixi bikes myself in the first season. Doesn’t happen any more.
steph 11:17 on 2019-08-23 Permalink
You can’t abandon a Bixi, the meter keeps running until it’s docked. With Lime the meter stops and the client doesn’t have to worry about where he leaves it.
thomas 11:26 on 2019-08-23 Permalink
@stetph Not quite true, to end the ride the app asks to take a photo to verify that the scooter is parked in a marked location.
CE 11:30 on 2019-08-23 Permalink
What happens when you send the photo and it isn’t left in a designated spot or the photo isn’t sent at all?
Kate 12:24 on 2019-08-23 Permalink
steph, everyone knows now that you can’t abandon a Bixi, but back then not so much. I possibly spared two people a big credit card charge by bringing those abandoned bikes back in.
Ian 12:29 on 2019-08-23 Permalink
As I recall at first there was some issue with the bikes not properly docking so there were some thefts.
Kate 12:45 on 2019-08-23 Permalink
Maybe, but unless the slot recorded the return of the bike, it was still running up a bill with whoever had last slotted it out.
thomas 13:29 on 2019-08-23 Permalink
Speaking of Bixi, Isn’t the official roll-out of electric Bixis supposed to happen next week?
@CE I don’t use Lime so not sure, but I think you must send a photo to end the ride and supposedly one gets banned from the service for repeat offences like improper parking (as what happens with Jump).
Blork 13:33 on 2019-08-23 Permalink
Does the Lime app have a map feature that shows you where the designated areas are?
Ephraim 15:18 on 2019-08-23 Permalink
Blork, yes, they are blue squares…. but Lime isn’t doing much about the bikes being out of the zones…. they just let people walk away and turn off the meter. At least on Sherbrooke, they are already littering the sidewalk.
js 15:59 on 2019-08-23 Permalink
They had a handful of those handicap-blue electrical assistance Bixis last year. They’re useless on flat ground for cyclists with properly functioning legs, but they do make climbing hills easier. One would think that most Montrealers including regular Bixi users would know the city well enough to be able to avoid big hills, which let’s face it there aren’t many to begin with. Who knows? Maybe between Jump bikes and the blue Bixis we’ll see many cycling commuters from the Plateau go up Camilien Houde to get to their jobs across town but I doubt it.
ottawaowl 19:02 on 2019-08-23 Permalink
Vandals used to lift up the bikes from behind at the docking stations to lever them free, but a 2009 upgrade to the docking cassettes solved the problem.
Too bad Bixi didn’t work out in Ottawa: we have NOTHING at the moment.
CE 20:40 on 2019-08-23 Permalink
The only time I ever used BIXI was when that was happening. I spent about 45 minutes looking for a docking station that had a free spot that wasn’t broken.