Who is in the Right, Citibike Employee or Me??
The other day I was on my way to do some errands when I saw a great point opportunity in the Manhattan area. The drop of spot was a major hub that needed bikes for after work riders, so was awarding 12 points. So I went out of my way and dropped my bike off there scoring a good point combo. After docking I saw they were still awarding 12 points for drop off. A quarter mile away, a station was awarding high points to pick up. It was a nice night so I decided to do the combo to get some great points. When I got back to the major CB hub, I docked the bike. All of a sudden an irate Citibike employee working as a concierge came up to me and said if I continued to do BikeAngels there he was going to suspend my BikeAngels membership. I was taken back, since this is the first time in 5ish years doing BA, that a concierge ever approached me like this, they have always been thankful for the help. The employee then went on to say that there were other BikeAngels dropping off bikes making his job hard. I said that I was only going by the points posted and though I was helping. He continued to get nasty, and I told him to take it up with Citibike if the point system is not reflecting a true supply/demand disruption that needs correction. Plus I told him he could have just asked me nicely instead of approaching in a belligerent way, I was not trying to cause him extra work. I then did my errands. Anyway has this ever happened to others? Thanks!
Streak system issues and potential tweaks
As a casual bike angel, I’ve recently come across a particular annoyance I’ve had with the current streak system that has the potential to penalize riders for taking more positive rides earlier in the day rather than spreading them out. Here’s a situation that happens to me often, and causes me to lose my streak by taking extra rides. If it’s the early evening and I have one more positive ride required to reach my goal, the situation often arises that after taking the ride, my schedule the following day is shifted later, causing me to be unable to reach 4 rides before that same time in the early evening. Thus, I often will take a neutral ride and delay that last positive ride to later in the day in order to be able to reach the goal by the end of the next day. Ideally, I would just be able to complete 4 rides during every calendar day to keep my streak, and not have to worry about shifting the schedule or changing the times of my rides so that my streak resets at the same time every day. Here are a few ways I’ve come up with to make that possible: Personal Favorite - Completing the 4 rides could extend the timer by 24 hours instead of resetting it. Streak time would max out at 2 or 3 days (maybe more?). Going from 2x to 3x would still reset the timer, not add 24 hours. Pros: Doesn’t penalize riders for completing 4 rides early in the day, or in quick succession Gives extra rewards to riders who complete more than 4 rides per day in the form of extra time Riders can build up time and take a short break without resetting their streak. Cons Time of day of rides is still an issue, but can be easily mitigated by grinding to reach 48 hours, then taking 4 rides per day. Alternate solution: taking 4 positive rides extends the streak for the entire next calendar day Pros Taking 4 positive rides every day is guaranteed to continue my streak Cons Could be worse for night angels, or people who ride at weird times depending on when the timer resets. Taking 4 rides early would give almost 48 hours of streak time, taking them late would give only slightly more. There is a discrepancy based on ride time of day, which is not ideal. Alternate Solution 2: Every positive ride resets the timer, assuming the last 4 rides taken (including the ride in question) were positive, and taken within 24 hours. Pros Very similar to current system, just not favoring every 4th ride Wouldn’t allow more than 24 hours of streak time (maybe a con) Definitely better than the current system but not ideal Cons Streak could be reset if rides were early one day but late the next, this was already a problem though.
Point algorithm feedback
Here's some point algorithm feedback after seeing other citi bike members complain about dock availability in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The dock atPioneer St & Van Brunt St has 39 docks but yesterday, Sunday, Oct 20th 2024 at 9:46am, one minute after the 15 minute point refresh, it is awarding pick up points while almost surrounded by very full stations which makesno sense. This is befuddling to me as it effectively disincentivizes all bike angels from re-balancing bikes from nearby full stations to this one when it clearly could be used to free up nearby docks and improve dock availability.Point of reporting "decent" bike conditions?
When reporting a problem with a bike via the wrench button and subsequent web/app survey I'm asked to choose between two conditions: decent or bad. Regardless of what's wrong, when selecting "decent", the bike is immediately made available again for anyone else to use. Only bikes reported as being in "bad" condition are locked out from use for others. So, what's the point of reporting decent bikes if they're going to continue being used around the system? Does the Lyft team do anything with "decent" bike reports? If not, is the option there purely for psychological reasons? If a problem is bad enough to affect the safety or severely makes the bike unrideable then I always report it as bad.
Joyriders and All Access
Regarding the Joyriders 15-minute extension for classic bike rides. Remco previously wrote: "The Lyft Pink upsell/included benefits message is not aware of your Joyrider status. If you have Joyrider status, you'll get an additional 15 minutes on classic bike rides for both membership types." Link: Will Lyft Pink Access All Market? | Bike Angels I currently have the Joyrider perk and an All-Access Pass, and the Citibike app still shows a 45-minute ride limit, while the Divvy app correctly shows 60 minutes. Can you clarify this, please? Based on Remco's post, we thought the 45-minute limit was only reflected in the "Lyft Pink upsell/included benefits message," and once approved as a Lyft All-Access Pass member, the Citibike app would update to reflect the full 60 minutes. I understand that promotional messaging did not recognize my Joyrider status, but now that I'm a confirmed Lyft All-Access Pass member, shouldn't the Citibike app reflect the 60 minutes per Remco's explanation?Max points given to drop off bikes at FULL station for most of the day
Since I started as a bike angel in March 2024 I've noticed that the point algorithm, for most of the day, is awarding max points for dropping off bikes at the Manhattan station at E 47 St & Park Ave, which has114 bike docks.Seems like a great point opportunity with so many stations around it awarding pick-up points, right? Wrong, the station is completely full by 8am and the valet attendant will scold you if they suspect you're a bike angel dropping off bikes to earn points. I was told by the valet that my account would get banned if I kept bringing bikes. This is a long-standing algorithm bug which makes a bad problem of dock availability even worse and should be reviewed by the bike angel team. The fix is conceptually simple: the station ought to award points to pick-up bikes from this station to improve the lack of available docks, even with a valet present. Here's a screenshot showing the completely full station is awarding max points to drop off bikes: The completely full station remains a max point drop-off station half an hour after the valet has left:
