Forum Discussion

th's avatar
th
Resourceful Rider
6 months ago

Citi Bike Dock Issues: Need Better Reporting

I often find myself riding to stations that show available docks on the app, only to arrive and find

 none. Despite the app indicating available docks, the reality is often different.

For instance, at 1st Ave & E 68th St on July 2nd at 11:30 am:

The app showed six available spaces, but there were none. I suspect the valet left without updating the dock status. Several people were already waiting for a space to free up, while others left in frustration.

Here's another example in Midtown:

The app shows one but it's permanently unusable.

The app allows us to report bike issues using the wrench icon, but there seems to be no way to report problems with dock stations. Is there an alternative to calling customer service for this? Perhaps the Angel program could be enhanced to address this, supplementing the bi-monthly station inspections, or we could implement a feature to correct system data inaccuracies more easily.

Thanks.

citibike
docks
feedback
  • SashaMetro's avatar
    SashaMetro
    Resourceful Rider
    6 months ago

    It would be nice if the valets left the chains locked to something nearby that isn't a dock, rather than making one of the supposedly available docks effectively unusable. I had this experience once in downtown Manhattan at a station with (supposedly) one dock free, but blocked with chains exactly as in the photo, and didn't make the connection with the valets until seeing this post.

  • Leslie52's avatar
    Leslie52
    Steady Solver
    6 months ago

    Yes, the inability to report broken docks have always been a problem.  You also cannot report when a station is completely full and offline...where no one can park or borrow a bike.  One angel put colored duct tape on docks that were broken last summer for two reasons, 1. To alert Citibike that the docks were in need of repair and 2. So people would not kill themselves (or waste time) trying to jam the bikes into broken docks.  It was great for number 2 but the tech guys failed to remove the tape on the rare occasion that the docks were repaired.  Also, if you tell a Citibike representative who is replacing batteries that a station is down, they tell you that there is a different team and do not offer to report it directly to that team...which does not make sense at all.

    • Jess's avatar
      Jess
      Bike Angels Team
      5 months ago

      Thank you for sharing your experiences, Leslie52. This information is helpful to understand how we might improve our reporting channels for broken stations and docks. I added the feedback tag to this conversation, which helps us track community conversations that internal teams might find insightful. 

  • Jess's avatar
    Jess
    Bike Angels Team
    6 months ago

    Thank you for sharing this painful experience here, th. I suspect that other Angels are just as frustrated when things like this happen. I've noticed an increase in Valet related questions in the community, and I plan to explore the overall valet x Bike Angels experience a bit more to provide recommendations or qualified feedback to the team and improved resources here for Angels. 

    I've also tagged this post as feedback, as we also have received critiques about the ease of reporting issues with a bike, dock, or station; and theoretically, these issues would affect Bike Angels more than the average rider. 

    • th's avatar
      th
      Resourceful Rider
      6 months ago

      I highlighted this issue because I believe it will impact the algorithm's point calculation. When no dock stations are available, the immediate demand for dock stations could range from 1 to 100. Conversely, if at least one dock station is available, we can infer there is no immediate demand, as that one would have been taken. Such incorrect inputs to the BA model will affect the point calculations of nearby stations as well, ultimately causing the system to fail in its intended function. As the saying goes, "Garbage in, garbage out."

      • Leslie52's avatar
        Leslie52
        Steady Solver
        6 months ago

        You cannot infer anything.  The algorithm changes at different times of the day and some stations show take out points when there are no bikes available.  That may be because the few remaining bikes were recently removed (during the fifteen minute period) or they are discouraging drop off points in anticipation for (for example) the morning rush hour when there are large waves of drop offs in the area.  Where I live the points go to neutral or take out in the late evening...even when there are no bikes to be found.  There are also people who put locks on Citibikes within the docks and do not actually dock them...when I see that I purposely dock the bike so that they will not be able to continue riding the bike (which was probably registered as lost by someone else who did not properly lock it) without paying for it again.  Cannot tell you how many homeless people are sleeping alongside bikes they found improperly docked. Others are locked up on city streets as well by people who originally stole or found them somewhere else.