Biking in Boston

datadyne007 said:
I used to be on the "amateurs shouldn't be riding on Boston streets" side, but after Hubway released their first year results listing not a single incident, my opinion changed. Hubway is fantastic and the majority seem to be using it responsibly.
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I agree -- anything that gets more bikes out there is a good thing, but we have to acknowledge there are trade-offs. Not to go too far down the Arlington Mark rabbit hole, but as an advanced cyclist, I'm probably better served by there being less infrastructure. But as an enthusiast for the idea that bikes are an important element of urban transportation, I have to side with more infrastructure, more bikes.
 
datadyne007 said:
Most Boston sidewalks, especially ones on old one-way side streets, are incredibly dangerous sidewalks too -- uneven and loose bricks, utilities sticking up, crooked plant beds, etc.
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Another good reason that small side streets should be just turned over into shared streets, instead of maintaining the pretense that the sidewalks are decent enough. There's no reason for the segregation, none of the vehicles (human or engine powered) should be going fast on those small streets.
 
NYC bikeshare has been delayed from July 2012 to....


March 2013.


Huge delay.

Such a shame too, if they had only paid attention to what Alta did in Boston, they would have come to expect the delay, it's just business as usual with them.
 
They probably decided it was pointless to open for 1 or 2 months only before shutting down for the winter.
 
Matthew said:
They probably decided it was pointless to open for 1 or 2 months only before shutting down for the winter.
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I believe NYC is getting a year round system, as Boston was supposed to have, not a seasonal one.
 
NYC is a year round system. Alta promised stations and a number of bikes when it was well aware the Canadian manufacturer couldn't deliver on schedule. Alta has repeatedly demonstrated to be all about wining the bid. Implementation and operation are secondary concerns after that point.
 
Ron Newman said:
Is Montreal's system year-round?
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No, but Toronto is. Im not familiar enough with the cities to know which one gets more snow. Anyone know?

*Snow is more relevant than temperature because snow is the reason for removal, to allow plowing and such.


Almost every major system is year round, some smaller systems like Minneapolis are seasonal. Boston, according to the 2009 RFP, was to be annual, at least partially. That is, the plan was to remove some stations as needed, while leaving the core of the system through plow season.
 
Hi. That's my photo set you linked to ;-) The newest section of the Alewife path is a boardwalk, and that new section completes the path system. However, the rest of the path on the Cambridge-Somerville side of Alewife Brook is paved asphalt. On the Arlington side, there's a mixture of boardwalk and unpaved stone-dust trail.

I made this map of the entire Alewife Greenway path system: http://goo.gl/maps/1rcCi

I also recommend the http://wordonstreet.wordpress.com/ blog which has been chronicling this project's progress.
 
If expansion is truly over (no new stations in over a week) than Hubway has a problem.

Their Brookline stations are VERY far apart from anything else, meaning if a dock is full or empty youre 100% screwed.

And it looks like a pattern has emerged. Every night, for 4+ hours, at least one of the stations remains 100% full, meaning countless people arrive and must bike quite the distance to lock up their bike, ruining their trip.

hubway4.jpg



Here you can see the Coolidge Corner station is full and has been for 4 hours. Red indicates full, blue empty.
 
Brookline has a fourth station purchased and they want to put it halfway between Coolidge Corner and Harvard/Comm Ave in Allston, but I don't think they have been able to find a spot yet. Not a ton of room along that stretch, especially since they aren't taking any parking.
 
jass said:
And it looks like a pattern has emerged. Every night, for 4+ hours, at least one of the stations remains 100% full, meaning countless people arrive and must bike quite the distance to lock up their bike, ruining their trip.
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I wish there was a way to get an accurate number of how often this happens, at this station and others. I don't know that I would agree that "countless people" get turned away, but it would be useful to know.
 
I'm sure expansion is not finished for the year, as Somerville is expecting several more stations over the next few weeks.
 
Hubway ranks very well in social media engagement:

Full story and table:
http://oliverobrien.co.uk/2012/08/bike-share-operators-twitter-engagement/

5 stars, satisfying these requirements:
Operators get a star for being on Twitter, another for having more followers than bikes on the street, another for replying directly to at least some user queries on Twitter, another for tweeting and least some system issues and other “bad news”, and another for having made at least a couple of tweets in the last 48 hours.
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MBTAddict said:
I wish there was a way to get an accurate number of how often this happens, at this station and others. I don't know that I would agree that "countless people" get turned away, but it would be useful to know.
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Theres really no way tot rack it short of standing there.

The contract should have something about fines if a station is full/empty for more than x hours. Wonder if its being enforced.


Meanwhile, in NYC....

She said that it appeared that Alta Bike Share and PBSC were selling the infrastructure 8D developed to Chicago and New York — and then attempting to install something entirely different as if it didn't matter. She claimed the 8D technology solution comprised over 60 percent of the total bike share system infrastructure — from payment security and wireless solutions to the solar panels that power the kiosks.

"New York would be up and running now without any flaws,” she continued. “We shouldn't even be talking about this now.”

...

"Alta/PBSC are clearly over-extended and the $28 million lawsuit from 8D has created a very serious problem for them,” said Bike Chicago’s Josh Squire. "Without the software they have no product to sell, and their contracts should be canceled.”

He said Alta and its partner had lied. “They made it sound like they are upgrading software when, in fact, they are developing new software from scratch.... It could take up to two years to get it right,” he said.
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http://www.gothamgazette.com/index..../1435-why-the-bike-share-software-doesnt-work
 
Maybe count the number of times people click time-extension.
 
Matthew said:
Maybe count the number of times people click time-extension.
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That's probably the best we could hope for, short of sticking people at each station, although it still misses the people who show up to a station and it's empty so they don't use Hubway.
 
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