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? :)

[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.)

[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...