The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

ivyleaf

i hadn't heard of them either. Chinese company apparently, can't remember what the blurb said now except that they will be useful for people in South London who are deprived of Boris bikes. We have neither here!

GDB2222

Lighter, apparently. Probably cheaper. And you can dump them anywhere.

This is how they deal with them in China, where a crazy amount of money has been raised for these schemes.

Doozergirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

Ah ... to be honest, I wasn't thinking it through at all ... I was just typing. Now I'm trying to think and can't think what the exact phrase would be, me or I. In my household I suspect it'd depend on who was saying it...

As long as you don't say "myself", I can cope with either.

The misuse of the word drives me to distraction!

Pyxis

Never heard of Ofo.

If you can dump them anywhere, how do they make any money out of them?

Me no understand!

(Misuse of pronoun and negative deliberate! )


Does anywhere other than London have rent-a-cycle schemes?
I certainly don't know of anywhere in my region.

Pyxis

Doozergirl wrote: »

As long as you don't say "myself", I can cope with either.

The misuse of the word drives me to distraction!

Wot, like me, myself and I? (All three of us!:D)

Seriously, though, don't you think it can sometimes have a use as an emphasis?

Pyxis

GDB2222 wrote: »

I've been looking on Dad Joke websites, because, after all, I am a dad and I like jokes. Anyway, I've filtered out the dross, and here are all the good ones:-

Have I missed something? :huh:

GDB2222

Pyxis wrote: »

Never heard of Ofo.

If you can dump them anywhere, how do they make any money out of them?

Me no understand!

(Misuse of pronoun and negative deliberate! )


Does anywhere other than London have rent-a-cycle schemes?
I certainly don't know of anywhere in my region.

It's all done with apps and GPS. You get the code to unlock the bike electronically.

They had plans to roll out (pun intended) in quite a few cities, but they have cut back, because it's uneconomical. I think they have the bikes in Cambridge, Norwich, and Sheffield.

The business plan is for people to borrow the bikes, park them carefully, and then somebody else does likewise and repeats the cycle (pun again). All at only 50p per hour.

The trouble is that the bikes end up in places where nobody wants to start their journey, so the company has to move the bikes around by truck a lot. A lot of the bikes are badly parked, so those need to be picked up by truck. Add in maintenance and management, and my gut reaction is that it costs a lot more than 50p per hour. But bikes are not very expensive to buy, so there's an upper limit to how much can be charged to hire them.

Still billions of dollars of capital have poured into these schemes, so somebody must be doing well out of them.

michaels

Pyxis wrote: »

Have I missed something? :huh:

whoosh....

GDB2222

Pyxis wrote: »

Have I missed something? :huh:

No, you haven't missed anything. Unfortunately, the list of good dad jokes is, umm, rather short.

Pyxis

GDB2222 wrote: »

It's all done with apps and GPS. You get the code to unlock the bike electronically.

They had plans to roll out (pun intended) in quite a few cities, but they have cut back, because it's uneconomical. I think they have the bikes in Cambridge, Norwich, and Sheffield.

The business plan is for people to borrow the bikes, park them carefully, and then somebody else does likewise and repeats the cycle (pun again). All at only 50p per hour.

The trouble is that the bikes end up in places where nobody wants to start their journey, so the company has to move the bikes around by truck a lot. A lot of the bikes are badly parked, so those need to be picked up by truck. Add in maintenance and management, and my gut reaction is that it costs a lot more than 50p per hour. But bikes are not very expensive to buy, so there's an upper limit to how much can be charged to hire them.

Still billions of dollars of capital have poured into these schemes, so somebody must be doing well out of them.

They need to develop something that stops the bike's wheels turning when it is taken further than a certain radius from the town centre, or suchlike.
A bit like B&Q baskets that set the alarm off if you attempt to take it outside! :rotfl:

Or simply have a deposit scheme? Leave the bike at a proper 'bike stop' and get your deposit back? Like trolleys?