Forum Discussion

jessejwk's avatar
jessejwk
Resourceful Rider
5 months ago

Pickup points at an empty dock

Just curious how this is supposed to work or how common it is. I'm in Greenpoint and every dock within a mile or so has pickup points, including one with no bikes at all (meaning it would not be possible to pick up from that dock). I assume Citi bike is doing the incentives more by zone l, but I would have thought an empty dock would at least be neutral. Is that a glitch or by design?

 

  • The points get assigned every 15 minutes, so at the time of your screenshot it has been 11 minutes since the point scores last updated. It's very well possible that at the time the points rolled over, there were more bikes in this station and either people took them out, or a rebalancing van took many out.

    Besides this, we do look at historical traffic patterns and if we expect an influx soon, there might not be any value in making this one station neutral, especially if people who do want to take a bike have two stations with plenty of bikes one avenue block away.

  • Remco's avatar
    Remco
    Bike Angels Team

    The points get assigned every 15 minutes, so at the time of your screenshot it has been 11 minutes since the point scores last updated. It's very well possible that at the time the points rolled over, there were more bikes in this station and either people took them out, or a rebalancing van took many out.

    Besides this, we do look at historical traffic patterns and if we expect an influx soon, there might not be any value in making this one station neutral, especially if people who do want to take a bike have two stations with plenty of bikes one avenue block away.