Forum Discussion

th's avatar
th
Resourceful Rider
6 months ago

Point change based on zoom

Why does the point changed if I zoom in or zoom out? I am guessing the zoom out one is to provide a more general sense of an area so may not be as up-to-date,  and the zoom in one is the current point?  Note the point changed from +2 to +1 as I zoom out, then changed back to +2 again as I zoom in.

Thanks

 

citibike
  • Remco's avatar
    Remco
    6 months ago

    Thanks! This is enough information to file a bug ticket. Long story short: my hunch is that at one zoom level the app is showing stale data (both bike availability and bike angels points) so I needed the station panel as a tie breaker to see what zoom level is wrong. 

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

    Leslie52 2WG-4WB You are both also using Android just like TH who originally posted this issue, right? I haven't noticed it personally on my Android phone, but thanks to kids I haven't been having as many long bike angeling sessions as I want to.

    • Leslie52's avatar
      Leslie52
      Steady Solver
      6 months ago

      FYI - They finally fixed this message board and sent me an email that there was a new post on this discussion.  Guess it will take them another three years to fix the app too.  I reported this issue last August, so...

    • Leslie52's avatar
      Leslie52
      Steady Solver
      6 months ago

      Yes Android...but others have had the same issue so I doubt that has anything to do with it.  

  • Leslie52's avatar
    Leslie52
    Steady Solver
    6 months ago

    This has been a problem for quite some time.  When they upgraded the system (probably a year ago or so) I noticed this issue primarily with the 3 and 6 point stations (with triple points).  If you specifically click on these stations so that the icon shows how many bikes are available you can be sure you are seeing the correct point value.  It is extremely annoying and I believe I posted this issue many months ago, but at least it is not confusing the negative and positive value of the stations...so that you lose the triple points (which actually happened to me last night...despite having checked the app after removing the bike).  

    • bwitt's avatar
      bwitt
      Steady Solver
      6 months ago

      Yes I've seen a similar thing too!

  • 2WG-4WB's avatar
    2WG-4WB
    Steady Solver
    6 months ago

    I've also have this issue where the zoom level changes availability and points. After getting burned a few times by walking to a station with no bikes, now I make sure to click on the station to really know what bikes/docks are truly there !  It would be great if you can fix this. Thanks! 

    • Leslie52's avatar
      Leslie52
      Steady Solver
      6 months ago

      I don't think that is a bug.  It can take a minute or two for the app to refresh itself after a bike is borrowed and/or returned.  In the minute it took you to walk to a station, someone else may have borrowed the last available bike.  You might notice this when you see someone borrow the last classic bike.  You often have to wait for the app to refresh if you want to borrow one of the remaining ebikes without being charged.  Also, if a station is down and shows bikes, but you click on the station and can see the station is down because (for example) it shows 5 ebikes, 2 classic bikes, and 0 open docks, you can tell that the station is down.  If the bikes plus open docks does not add up to a full station, either the station is down or (once in a while) there are a lot of bikes at the station in need of repair (with red lights on).  

  • th's avatar
    th
    Resourceful Rider
    6 months ago

    Thanks for the prompt responses. 
    Here is another example. Time is 6:21 pm 05/29/2024.
    Screenshot attached. 

    I do have a follow-up question though. I understand the bike availability changes dynamically within the 15-minutes window (at 5:00, 5:15, 5:30, 5:45 etc), but aren't BA points stable during that 15-minute window?  You mentioned that when we click on a station, the app fetches the most current availability and point value. Why does it get the point values out of cycle?  Or does it mean the point assigned to this station is dynamic and depends on the instantaneous availability?

    My naive conceptual understanding is that the BA algorithm runs once every 15 minutes and assign the point values for the next 15 minutes.  The app, when starting up, will first get the current values, then at every 15 minutes boundary (5:00, 5:15, 5:30 etc) it refreshes the stored point values. If that's the case, then there really isn't a need to fetch point value when we click on a station.  Alternatively, the points are dynamic, and what we see on the app is just a snapshot in time, so there would be a lot of stale values showing, which isn't quite right either. 

    Thanks for any clarification.

     

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

      Thanks! This is enough information to file a bug ticket. Long story short: my hunch is that at one zoom level the app is showing stale data (both bike availability and bike angels points) so I needed the station panel as a tie breaker to see what zoom level is wrong. 

      • RedDragon's avatar
        RedDragon
        Resourceful Rider
        4 months ago

        I can confirm this bug is still present (3 months later) on the current Citi Bike app on my Android phone version 15.70.3.1722411100. The only workaround is to restart the app or wait for the next 15 minute refresh. The issue also happens sporadically for me and is annoying.

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

    This is really odd! I also see that the amount of bikes in the station changes from 1 + 2 (= 3) to 4 as you zoomed out. Would the total bike count go back down to 3 as you zoomed in again?

    When you tap on a station we will fetch the latest information on bike availability and bike angels points to show in the station panel (you might have to scroll up a bit to see the bike angels points in your station panel). This should definitely be the best source of truth of what the score actually is.

    Next time this happens, can you post back to this thread with:

    1. The date and time that this happened
    2. A screenshot of the station panel that also shows the bike angels score for the station
    3. A screenshot of the zoom level with the wrong score
    4. A screenshot of the zoom level with the right score

    Thanks!

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

    Hi, th, Apprciate you posting this question here and sending over these pics. I'm sharing this report internally, so our team can investigate further. Points on the map shouldn't change unless it's an interval change every 15 mins.