| Topic: | Re:Re:Orange mobikes | |
| Posted by: | Andrew OSullivan | |
| Date/Time: | 29/11/18 11:06:00 |
| The proliferation of these bikes around the Chiswick and Acton began when the service was withdrawn from the Ealing area. The company said at the time it was down to levels of usage. Given the number of bikes at the moment it seems likely there are other areas of operation that have been scaled back so it does look like we have become a giant storage area for this company's assets. The service itself is actually very useful and having so many bikes around makes it more practical for users. When the company moved bikes out of the area a few months ago for launches in other boroughs it became much less convenient because you would rarely be able to find a bike when you needed. The current problems could easily be solved by the company spending a small amount of money on storage space and keeping the excess inventory of bikes there until needed. Usage is likely to increase when the weather improves. It is a service that has a lot of value and the benefits would outweigh the problems caused if it was properly managed. As for the idea that the company has been set up to collect data, this nonsense should be disregarded. The usage levels would be too low to make this worthwhile and the data collect wouldn't be of any great use. The company has a revenue based business model. I don't use sites like Facebook and Nextdoor because they are set up to collect and resell your personal data but wouldn't be discouraged from using Mobike for this reason. |