Bike Angels Community AMA 2023
UPDATE: This is thread is closed for new AMA questions. Feel free to add kudos to any unanswered questions! We’ll continue to monitor this thread, and of course the community is always open for membe...
Forum Discussion
Yeah, that's a massive pain too. I was walking with my mom the other weekend and moved some bikes from a station that was filling too quickly (what, doesn't everybody move bikes with their mom?), and one of the stations didn't end my ride. So there I was, with my mom, asking her to wait while I go on the phone with customer service.
But the weird thing? It wasn't the first bike I'd moved to that station. The first time, the ride ended just fine. And the bikes were parked right next to each other. So, this is how I can tell it's complex. I wish it wasn't. But customer support was amazing: friendly, helpful, and they disabled the station until someone could look at it. Thanks for calling these things in when you see them.
Yeah… but to echo what RickyDee said… you should have the data to know when a station is not working just via usage, or rather complete lack thereof! Or even just a dock… I’ve seen single docks not work for weeks, but the app reports a dock open at an otherwise full station. And then it’s just a stream of people stopping by the station to try to park in the one remaining open dock, that’s actually broken. My immediate thought is, why isn’t this automatic?? If a full station has an open dock that no one is using for several weeks… stop showing that dock as open! This should be easy to flag in usage data. Or if a station just stops all activity when it should be busy, grey it out. The fact that you had to call w/ your mom is a failure on the data & engineering side of things.
Yes, absolutely! The problem is actually harder to solve than it looks like from the outside, but we're working towards it. (Along with a lot of other things to make life better for riders.) This is a good idea, and I can't share more, but it's safe to say riders can expect future improvements to this experience.
While there is a wrench for the bikes in need of repair, there is no way for us to flag the docks that need attention. Not only that, but if a bike is docked already but noticeably in need of repair (missing pedal, unattached chain, basket hanging off from people using them as a seat, etc.) you cannot access the wrench either, unless you borrow the bike (which I prefer not to do because the ride history is hard to navigate to begin with). On that note...you cannot view your ride history and points on a computer (PC) and there is no app that is compatible, so that is a problem in and of itself. Until recently, there was very little activity on this site, so just figured I would spill it all while someone was paying attention. Thanks!
