Maybe This Time, the Bikes Won’t End Up in the River

Uber and other bike share companies will only put forth the least possible effort in managing bike use. The real value to them is in the information they sell to advertisers about where you go and how often you go there. The bikes are expendable, and cities like Rome are finding out the hard way that what seems like a good mico-mobility solution is really just another tech ploy to sell targeted advertising. The quality of life for citizen's is hardly a concern for them.

Rental ebikes are definitely a good idea in Rome as the city is big and featuring 7 hills, public transport poor and not existing in the inner-city centre. However, the hourly rental rate by Uber is 12€ which is rather high for locals and therefore I presume it will be mainly used by tourists. I am a biker since birth and bike on a daily basis in Rome. Not an easy task! Do have in mind that there are hardly any bike lanes, most roads are one-way and very crowded with tourists. Whereas bigger roads with traffic are full of congestion and drivers do not notice bikers which makes it very dangerous to move around especially without a helmet and a good knowledge of the roads. Finding your way can be hard as Google Maps do not support biking here. Rome's mayor probably approved the project in order to look 'green' but despite the increase of bikers in recent years - and the failure of the public transport - she has not yet realized that one needs to provide safety for bikers and increase awareness of advantages such as less pollution, health issues and faster than driving and looking for parking by using bikes as mean of transport.

I live in Rome and have used these bikes several occasions. They are convenient for a jump from one place to another. Rome has a lot of hills (more than 7) and I love these give a little push. They are a bit expensive but if you need a lift to get to an appointment on time it is worth it. I also like that when you park it you don’t have to think about going back and retrieving it. It is a great alternative to waiting for a bus and then being crushed into it like a sardine. Despite the price I give it a thumbs up! I really hope these last.

In Berlin the streets are filled with mini scooters and rental e-bikes. Lying on the streets. Turned upside down. In bushes. Parked on the roads. Standing on the payments. I say get rid of them. There are plenty of rental bicycle shops - and return the bicycle to where you got it from. Support the local community rather than a tax dodging company like Uber. Get these ugly bicycles of the streets. Why on earth do you need battery for your bicycle? We all have muscles in our legs. A heart that loves pounding blood around your body. Dopamine that will be released from pushing yourself just a little bit. Not to forget the health benefits of taking a long good walk instead of "scootering" around the place. If this continues everybody will end up like the fat lazy people portrayed in Wall-e because it's convenient, fast and above all easy. Also what are the life expectancy of a mini scooter or uber bicycle battery? Sustainable - I don't think so. Use your legs, use your body and use your mind.

There is surely an immense joy touring world-class cities by bicycle - Europe has so very many, large and small. Walking is great, sure, but a bike allows you to cover so much more ground! Hop-on, hop-off at a leisurely pace; outlying attractions & nature so easily attainable! The costs & logistics of PT fall by the wayside. When in Rome - truly roam! I fondly remember my short-lived bike-tour of Copenhagen, 1999. Municipal-sponsored bike sharing was still so minty-fresh then; from various docking-stations, a 2-Krone coin deposit would release your 3-speed - to be spit back out when re-docked! Alas, I was to enjoy such bliss but briefly. Stopping to explore a lovely old church, I exited to find my unlocked bike gone. I like to remember that I was more sanguine than angry...apparently someone really needed that coin. C'est la vie...

Rome, home, to pickpockets........say no more

"and other cities that in several cases are overrun with rolling menaces" It's very strange that bikesharing programs are so controversial, considering that these cities have long been overrun with a substantially more dangerous, environmentally damaging menace: cars.

Seattle was the first U.S. city to try dockless bike rentals starting a little over 2 years ago. At first, some found their way into Green Lake or other places and a few made their way to more creative places like on top of the Fremont Troll Under the Bridge. I'm surprised one has not found its way to the top of the Space Needle. I have done a photo study using them because of their bright colors. But now, I mostly see them at a bus stop at the bottom on one of our many, many steep hills or the entrances to the bike paths. It appears as though commuters take the bus close to home, swipe the bike app, scoot up their hill, and return in the morning. I can't blame them. If you do plan on visiting Seattle, I would strongly suggest renting one with the e-motor. I have biked across the Cascade Mountains and back with camping gear and no matter where I ride to in this city, I end up using all of my lowest gears. A better biking option would be to rent a bike from a gazillion bike shops in town who can set you up with a carbon-frame bike and helmet. We have an extensive system of bike-lanes so you can ride without being in traffic. I have not owned a car in about 10 years and take the bus only once a month to haul my bike from one neighborhood to the top of a hill in another neighborhood to run errands. Then, I just ride the brakes all the way back home:)

Maybe in the river is where these bikes (and the even more dangerous and annoying scooters) belong. City governments are swooning over these ridiculous vehicles and most citizens are gnashing their teeth ... or recovering from injuries sustained by being hit by them as pedestrians or (even worse) falling off them if they are bold enough to rent one.

Maybe Uber should try another model, quit.

So, let me get this straight. Uber gets spectacularly cheap loans from banks who get even cheaper loans from the US Federal Reserve, and 'invests' in a money-losing program to clog city streets and sidewalks with 'utility bikes' that collect data on their users and are disposed of like trash. What could go wrong? https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/18/world/europe/rome-uber-bike-share.html

What is it that they are doing differently this time? Brings to mind the quote often attributed to Einstein about doing the same thing and expecting a different result...

I just can’t see jumping on a strange bicycle out of the blue and riding it, especially in a busy city. Anyone in the shape and has the nerves to probably has a bicycle that’s fit to their liking already, these toys only look good on tourist posters and to urban planners trying to pitch a case for higher density to enrich big developers.

Boston tried a couple bike rental porgrams where the bikes could be left wherever the last rider felt like putting them--sidewalks, side of the road, anywhere--and more than a few of them ended up in bodies of water. I hated to see the bikes just left in random places. I always thought that if a bike had a soul, it would be wounded to know that it can be left just anywhere. A bike deserves a proper home and a good owner.

Why do these bike share bikes, always look so dorky?! When I visited Madison, WI (which is very bike friendly) I rented a bike from a shop, rather than ride around on one of their dorkmobiles. They would get used more if they were better bikes.

Chapter 3 of the book of Romans in the New Testament has some advice for Uber as they try to profit by leaving these scooters on the streets to the mercy of anyone who happens upon them: All have sinned .... It’s very likely that all of these scooter rentals popping up in the work will be a short term experiment that will soon fail. People are wonderful and terrible and with no way for Uber to weed out the terrible, they will not win with this venture.

I love this. It is needed in many places, believe me. I can think of dozens.

Sure, everything coming out of Silicon Valley sounds like a great idea....

"...GPS locaters on the bikes allow for constant monitoring, making them less vulnerable to theft." Imagine Uber alerting the Carabinieri of the theft of a bike. Imagine the ensuing laughter.

I worry about municipal bike rental programs being run by companies whose main business is taxi service, like Uber and Lyft. Here is Boston, the system is managed by a company called Motivate, which is owned by Lyft. A regular user, I've noticed that service has gone considerably downhill since this happened. I wonder how long it will be before the app offers, "Aren't you feeling tired? Here's a discount on our car service..." to steer you away from bikes and into the more profitable taxi service. This is a conflict of interest.

I don't know about Rome but if you go to Paris, rents scooter-need a motorcycle license-and spend the day tooling around. Two on a scooter is like a '50s movie.

Rode these in Austin—so much fun. Unlike other bikes I've ridden, these have power boosts for going up hills or merging into traffic. Still need to pedal but you break less of a sweat (and who wants to sweat when on vacation?).

Please, Rome, if you figure it out, share your secret with us. Jump Bikes pulled out of Providence a few months ago after a couple of incidents involving huge groups of young teenagers riding stolen red bikes, taking over entire streets and menacing drivers and pedestrians. I watched one young man grab a bike in front of my house, take a hammer to the lock, and ride away - it took him maybe five seconds. I had been using the bikes to commute to work, but it wasn't long before they were rounded up and taken away. Jump/Uber promised to return, but I finally gave up waiting and bought a car. The Jump bike representative told the city that they had never had this problem before. I found that hard to believe, and now it appears it wasn't true.

Please stop referring to these services as "bikeshare." Please call them "bike rental" services. They rent bikes, they do not share them.

Rome officials allowed these horrific eyesores to litter their city?

I hailed Uber in Rome twice this year. Cancelled both when the cars never came. I've had good luck elsewhere in Europe and Asia. As for biking Rome - it's one of my favorite things to do there. I've spent a number of days riding aimlessly and other days biking to sites - with never a problem of any kind. Sometimes it seems like it's a 'thing' to dump on Rome. I've been many times and adore it. Only good things to say about the people, the food, the history.

"The company is introducing a fleet of 2,800 bicycles that can be left practically anywhere" Including the river.

Winers. People complain about everything. Traffic, no parking, expensive trains all waste time so you would think that a creative alternative (such as this)would be embraced. But some people just want to complain about their problems. The real problem is that their destructive behavior spoils it for those who believe in progress. Sadly, when people don’t have to pay for a benefit they don’t value it.

While we're at it, Rome can have all the scooters that are littering my fair city … I've had my fill of 'innovation.' And they will, too.

$2.50/10 minutes or $12.50 (or Euro) an hour? It's not a bike share, it's a rip off! Especially in Rome where the average salary is around 1500 Euros a month. Unless one has some serious physical limitation or is truly allergic to pedaling, in dense cities, electric bikes are only marginally faster than non-electric bikes. In addition to being costly, like electric scooters, they are also responsible for far more carbon emissions than one would think (see why in the story linkind below). As others have pointed out, outside of a Silicon Valley campus they are also aesthetically offensive . I love bikes and bikes share in cities, but these Jump/Uber electric bikes are a terrible formula. I wouldn't be sorry to see them fail. I just hope that not too many of them end up in the river, where the leaking batteries will further pollute the water. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/8/8/20759062/electric-scooter-environment-climate-change-bird-lime

Perhaps cities should pick up any lose bike they find not where it should be and fine the companies who put them there. After all, residents don't just magically put those bikes on the streets. Fine the originators of these messes and if they won't fix their problems kick them out for good.

Just back from a trip to Rome, where the tourist crowds and vehicular traffic were terrible, even in what is supposedly shoulder season. The clogged streets and jammed sidewalks make the idea of putting 2,800 electric bicycles into service sound like a disaster in the making. I am all for aspirational “green” goals, but the dangers to pedestrians and bike riders seem abundantly clear. And did I miss any reference to wearing helmets while riding the bikes? Yikes!

Uber, the scourge of our World. Another bad idea from a horrible company.

Why indeed are they so expensive? How can a small, lowish energy machine be as expensive as a car and driver? Won't someone explain that?

These bikes should be treated like the unwelcome trash they are.

Theft of private property in Italy. . . no, never. The abject stupidity of the Uber folks boggles the mind.

Perhaps if they were truly SHARED (as opposed to rented, at quite high prices), and perhaps if they were available to EVERYONE (not just those who can afford a smartphone and are willing to carry it around all the time), and perhaps if they were truly PUBLIC (and not a profit-making venture by a wealthy foreign corporation), fewer of them would end up in the river.

Yes, they will end up in the river. Not everything translates.

I must have gone to a different Rome this summer. Outside of 5 major tourist sites - the Vatican, the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and the Wedding Cake - I found a serene city with so many beautiful churches, historical sites, plazas and monuments in which to immerse myself. I do not recall potholes or mounds of garbage. The public transportation was excellent, only a bit overcrowded during rush hours and at major tourist stops. As for bikeshare programs, I have literally saved over $500/year with Citibike here in NYC. There were definitely some shortcomings to the program when they began but they are now a very reliable transportation option. I am glad we have bike docks and not a system where bikes are just left wherever the rider gets off.

Stop calling it Bike Sharing. Sharing involves no exchange of money. It's a rental.

Maybe the solution is like the Citi bikes. You pick them up in a rack, you return it to the same rack. This millenial thing of leaving your toys wherever so that daddy and mommy can come by later to pick them, needs to change. Until then, any service that allows kids to drop their toys wherever they want, will fail.

And they're inscribed in English. Classy nod to the language spoken in Rome.

How does the word "share" fit in here? You're renting something and paying for it. Not the kind of sharing we all learned in kindergarten.

My problem with bike share programs is they are ugly. These are bright red advertisements littering the streets in places that would not have advertisements before. Here in Vancouver we have "mobi" and it was a backdoor to allowing a cable company to put bright blue billboards (in the form of bike racks) in all the quiet residential streets that before had no advertisements.

I had the good fortune of living in Rome for 5-years in the 1990s. From the Roman point of view, riding a bicycle in the city is like eating alone in a fine restaurant - it's a brutta figura that must be avoided.

"The company is introducing a fleet of 2,800 bicycles that can be left practically anywhere." An in a nutshell that is the problem. They *will* be left practically anywhere. As in every other city where Uber has deposited these bikes, you will find these bikes everywhere, and mostly in the wrong places. Cities should fine Uber for littering, because that's pretty much their attitude - it's not their problem if users leave the bikes where they shouldn't; apparently, that's only the users' fault. Yet again, a tech company monetizing the commons for its own benefit.