Posted May 20:

[randomness]

‪I'm idly wondering whether anyone would be upset if I started moving dockless bikeshare bikes out of the prohibited cities before they get impounded. Or even if anyone would care.

From https://boston.curbed.com/2018/5/17/17363534/boston-bike-sharing-ant-blue-dockless:

The flareup involves a Cambridge startup called Ant Bicycle. Its dockless bikes—which users unlock with an app—can be left anywhere, though they’re not welcome in Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville, which have an exclusive deal with the more traditional bike-share system Blue Bikes (formerly Hubway), wherein users return the bikes to special kiosks about the towns.

Boston has been impounding the Ant bikes, and Somerville and Cambridge are warning the company to stay off its streets.

Note added today: I'd like to have some bikeshare bikes nearby, and my town has not joined the agreement, so there are no bikeshare docks near me. If these bikes are going to be impounded by Boston, wouldn't it be better if I moved some of them out of those cities and nearer to me?

Probably it'd be better if I used a truck.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

Are you going to rent a warehouse? :)

[randomness]

Ha!

I don't want them *all*. :)

[frotz]

I've been seeing ant bikes around Cambridge for ages. (...which makes sense, as that's where they started, and I think I distantly know some of the people involved.) I suspect Cambridge is making as much noise as they feel contractually obligated to make and otherwise don't care.

(...whereas Boston is just being a bunch of jerks.)

[randomness]

I've been seeing ant bikes around Cambridge for ages.

Do you remember offhand when you first saw them? I'm curious as to when they started in Cambridge because they were in Swampscott a while ago.

[frotz]

I think it was late summer or early fall of last year; I saw one in front of 1 Broadway and was intrigued. I thought I took a picture, which would nail it down, but I haven't found it yet. (Should check browser history on my work computer, too.)

[randomness]

Yeah, that's about the time ofo and Lime showed up as well.

I feel like one of them moved first and all the others jumped in, driven by FOMO. When I saw ofo's and Lime's bikes within feet of each other last fall I observed to E that it was a strange time of year to start rolling out bikes.

Thanks!

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Well, if you moved them by renting them and riding them, you're probably reasonably safe. I wouldn't want to be pulled over driving a truck full of rental bikes, though. Also, there's no particular reason not to assume that Boston et al. are trying to maintain some sort of franchise fee they're getting from [whoever] by keeping the competition out, which means that they have an incentive to prevent you from renting that bicycle standing there...

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I feel like Boston would be glad to have me (or even better, someone from the companies) haul them away in a truck. Whether the other towns would be that eager to see me depositing them on their streets is another story.

Boston/Cambridge/et. al. haven't been preventing anyone from renting the bikes. Again, if you're taking them away I think they're happy about it, whatever way you do.

A friend has suggested I wait a while to see if Lime expands in my direction, as they have promised to do. That would save me lots of effort, so I'll give them a couple more weeks.