07-02-2016, 07:23 AM
(I couldn't find another thread on it, so I've added this post here.)
I had my first experience with Bicycle Sharing today!
My husband and I were in Hamilton and decided to go for a walk alone the waterfront. We had parked in a big lot and as we headed down the trail, noticed a stall with bicycles to loan. I only took a quick look at them, but noticed that they were shaft drive, not chain drive, and had hub brakes, blah blah blah and over the next 45 minutes, instead of taking in the scenery I was just turning over and over in my head all these clever design choices that the engineers must have made to build rock-solid bikes that require no maintenance and take a beating!
When we got to the lot at the other end of the trail, about 3 km away or so, I think my other half knew what I wanted to do
So we figured out the App, made an account, punched in the number on the bikes and went for a ride! So impressed with this system.
Before we left, I was able to check that there were 10 stalls back at the car and 7 of them were open, so I knew we'd be fine. At the end of our one-way ride back to the car, we parked the bikes, shackled them up, and were charged about a buck each.
The keypad on the back of the bike, at the end of the ride.
As we drove out of downtown Hamilton, back home, we kept noticing just how frequent the stalls are. They're everywhere! The App shows you where every single bike is - wether it's a stall, or one that has been tethered somewhere else.
Bicycle availability. The green teardrops show racks; the blue bikes on their own are vagrants that are shackled to non-rack areas.
I am guessing that at some point, there's a truck that comes along and has 20 or 50 bike racks on it and a crew "re-shuffles" the bikes at the end of the night, in case they get all lumped up in one area.
I know I've ridden/driven/walked past a stall at KPL that has some kind of bike-sharing program (orange and white, IIRC?) but I don't think it's as elaborate as this. I absolutely love this concept and am looking forward to doing this again, the next time we're in Hamilton! After all, I have $8 left on the account I have to burn.
I had my first experience with Bicycle Sharing today!
My husband and I were in Hamilton and decided to go for a walk alone the waterfront. We had parked in a big lot and as we headed down the trail, noticed a stall with bicycles to loan. I only took a quick look at them, but noticed that they were shaft drive, not chain drive, and had hub brakes, blah blah blah and over the next 45 minutes, instead of taking in the scenery I was just turning over and over in my head all these clever design choices that the engineers must have made to build rock-solid bikes that require no maintenance and take a beating!
When we got to the lot at the other end of the trail, about 3 km away or so, I think my other half knew what I wanted to do
So we figured out the App, made an account, punched in the number on the bikes and went for a ride! So impressed with this system.- It's called SoBi, or Social Bicycles Hamilton.
- You can borrow up to 3 bikes at a time with one account.
- You go up to any bike and it has a little electronic, solar powered (!!) device on the back, which includes a robust LCD screen, some buttons, and a solenoid that releases a U-Bar shackle.
- You're billed about $4/hour, which I think is very reasonable.
- If you want to go shopping or something, you can "Hold" the bike and temporarily lock it somewhere.
- You can have the bike for up to 24 hours before it's a problem.
- You can return it to any SoBi stall. If you don't, or can't find a spot, you can shackle it to any secure location within the Hamilton zone, and you're charged an extra $1.
- Hardware: Shimano INTER Hub Brakes, Shimano NEXUS hub gearing, 3 speeds, fully-enclosed shaft drive
Before we left, I was able to check that there were 10 stalls back at the car and 7 of them were open, so I knew we'd be fine. At the end of our one-way ride back to the car, we parked the bikes, shackled them up, and were charged about a buck each.
The keypad on the back of the bike, at the end of the ride.
As we drove out of downtown Hamilton, back home, we kept noticing just how frequent the stalls are. They're everywhere! The App shows you where every single bike is - wether it's a stall, or one that has been tethered somewhere else.
Bicycle availability. The green teardrops show racks; the blue bikes on their own are vagrants that are shackled to non-rack areas.
I am guessing that at some point, there's a truck that comes along and has 20 or 50 bike racks on it and a crew "re-shuffles" the bikes at the end of the night, in case they get all lumped up in one area.
I know I've ridden/driven/walked past a stall at KPL that has some kind of bike-sharing program (orange and white, IIRC?) but I don't think it's as elaborate as this. I absolutely love this concept and am looking forward to doing this again, the next time we're in Hamilton! After all, I have $8 left on the account I have to burn.