Biking in Boston

mass88 said:
I forgot to mention, the biker failed to make a signal, he just veered over without even looking over his shoulder. It was almost as if he was thinking a car would yield to him.
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Any chance you could've been changing the station, turning up or down the heat, looking in your mirror, checking your speed, trying to find your phone, looking at your gas guage, checking the time, and missed his signal?
 
found5dollar said:
i was in amsterdam for 4 days and saw no less than 5 accidents with bicycles. If i had a kid in amsterdam i would never let them ride their bike in the bike lanes. It is probably the most bike friendly city, but these measurements we are comign up with have no bearing on what makes a good biking city.
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You were likely in the center of Amsterdam near Dam Square. Having ridden a bike in that area before, it is not for neophytes. I mean, sure when I turned 16, I could have taken a drivers ed course in an urban area, but instead I took the class in the suburbs where the roads aren't packed with crazy drivers. Same thing with bikes in the Netherlands, know your skill level.
 
In my recollection, the main hazards to bicycling in that area are the numerous street-running tram tracks.
 
A bit smaller of a launch that what was originally envisioned, but it's great to finally see this get off the ground. Though, it's interesting that it doesn't start until July. With half the biking season behind them before it even gets off the ground, I hope they don't deem it a failure after just one year.

In fact, they'll really need to hustle. Again, my fear is that with such a late start and a short period of implementation, this will not be as successful a launch as other cities have seen that had much more lead-in time to get awareness out for the project and get people signed up. For instance, in Toronto, they had about 9 months and a stipulation by the city that Bixi needed to get at least 1,000 members prepaying an annual membership by last November in order for the city to go ahead with financial support. Boston is only giving itself two months. That's not a long time to get the word out to residents.

I also hope that they don't just stick these initial docking stations in tourist/commercial areas, like the Aquarium or Copley Place. Hopefully, there will be stations at intersections like Marlborough and Mass Ave. and along Tremont St. so residents of the city (the main target, based on other cities' pricing schemes) can easily access them and will be willing to fork out the money for an annual membership.

Anyone here looking forward to this?
 
Wonderful news. I will use this often and prefer it to using my own bike. Why? Because it eliminates my major headache when it comes to casually biking to get somewhere: having to take the bike home. Sometimes the weather changes. Sometimes you're tired. Sometimes you've walked far from your bike once you've parked it, and hopping on the T becomes more convenient. (In fact, those times when I've left my bike overnight on these occasions with the intention of picking it up the next day have been the only times that my bikes have been stolen or vandalized.) Enabling one-way bike tripping will be a massive benefit for me. The article seems to say that the first half hour is free - if that's true, then I would be able to commute to work for nothing, without having to commit to biking home.

Erik - the intention does seem to be to hit residential areas as well, including college campuses. In fact, Brookline and Cambridge are negotiating separate contracts with the vendor, but the entire system will be interoperable.

I used a very similar system in South Beach last week. There were many convenient stations in residential as well as touristy areas, although the system overall was quite small (Miami Beach only). I especially liked the sturdiness and construction of the bikes. (The system there is called "DecoBike".)
 
Are there more spaces than bikes at each "station"? Whether or not there is, what do you do when it's full?
 
BostonUrbEx said:
Are there more spaces than bikes at each "station"? Whether or not there is, what do you do when it's full?
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An average station would have something like 12 docks, and 8 bikes. Busier stations (like south station, back bay etc) might have 24 docks and 18 bikes at launch.

If you arrive at a station thats full, you push a button on a screen that extends your free time by 15 minute. A map shows closeby stations.

During the winter, the bike fleet would be shrunk (as less people will use them, so bikes can be stored to prevent rust) and some docks removed because of plowing.



*At least that was the situation when the thing was supposed to launch April 2010.
 
From what I've read, the city will remove the system entirely during the coldest winter months (December, January, February), as is done in Montreal.
 
Ron Newman said:
From what I've read, the city will remove the system entirely during the coldest winter months (December, January, February), as is done in Montreal.
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That wasnt in the original RFP, it explicitly asked for 365 day operation.

Removing them during winter is very stupid. For every 2011 style winter with mountains of snow and -5 degree days, there are two winters where it snows 3 times and never again and the temperature doesnt drop below 20.
 
Have design plans for the bikes and stations been released?
 
bdurden said:
Have design plans for the bikes and stations been released?
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I haven't seen any design plans, but according to The Globe, the company they're hiring (Alta Bicycle Share) is using the BIXI system. Thus, I suspect the design will be similar or the same as existing setups. If you look at photos of the implementations of BIXI in Montreal and Washington DC they look basically the same with minor differences (e.g. color scheme).
 
metasyntactic said:
I haven't seen any design plans, but according to The Globe, the company they're hiring (Alta Bicycle Share) is using the BIXI system. Thus, I suspect the design will be similar or the same as existing setups. If you look at photos of the implementations of BIXI in Montreal and Washington DC they look basically the same with minor differences (e.g. color scheme).
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Bixi is the vendor, Alta is the operator, so yes, they will buy the "off the shelf" stations, possibly change the colors, and plop them into Boston.
 
jass said:
An average station would have something like 12 docks, and 8 bikes. Busier stations (like south station, back bay etc) might have 24 docks and 18 bikes at launch.

If you arrive at a station thats full, you push a button on a screen that extends your free time by 15 minute. A map shows closeby stations.

During the winter, the bike fleet would be shrunk (as less people will use them, so bikes can be stored to prevent rust) and some docks removed because of plowing.



*At least that was the situation when the thing was supposed to launch April 2010.
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And will someone be responsible for redistributing the bikes every so often? I can imagine certain docking stations will be full almost all the time unless someone comes by to scoop up the excess bikes at the end of the day.
 
Yes, there are vans that shuttle the bikes around as needed. DC has a penalty (against the operator) if a station remains empty or full for 3 consecutive hours. Dont know if Boston has that clause as well.
 
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