UPDATE: This is thread is closed for new AMA questions. Feel free to add kudos to any unanswered questions! We’ll continue to monitor this thread, and of course the community is always open for members to post new topics and feedback. Big Thanks to Angels that joined in the conversation! Our first AMA is live—drop your questions below. 🎉 As a reminder, our AMA is more passive than a traditional AMA, and will remain open for one week. Some helpful links: Community Guidelines Community FAQ Robert's Intro Remco's Intro Eliza's Intro robert_halo | Robert 13,165 Lifetime Points (As of today I have 11,415 lifetime points. But just wait until tomorrow....) Internal Mega Angel Software Engineer — Lyft Transit and Bikes I’m Robert, and I'm a strong believer in Bike Share as something that makes the world a better place. I use it and public transit all the time. The benefits in terms of pollution reduction, fewer cars on the road, etc. are fantastic. I also really love meeting other Angels. There's something wonderful about seeing the other person also dashing between stations and staring at their phone the same way that I do. We are all ages, all backgrounds, and all genders. We are often intense, but Doing Good. Hoping to meet more and more folks while out moving bikes. Although I don’t work on Bike Angels directly, I'm an active internal user (over 12k points), and I actively give early feedback and try my best to catch things and represent folks in the Angel community. Ask me Anything. Remco | Remco 3,674 Lifetime Points Community Mega Angel Software Engineer — Bike Angels I’m Remco, and I’ve worked on the Bike Angels Team for more than 3 years. Most recently, I’ve been working on tools that help the team simulate rides and ride conditions. My lifetime score is 3276; Even though we can test Bike Angels features just through software in our pre-production environment, I really want to go out to earn some points every week because it feels different if you need to bike and walk for your points. I find reading the balance between what's needed for the system and fun to do for the riders challenging, and seeing people get really caught up and excited about Bike Angeling super rewarding. Ask me anything. eliza | Eliza 206 Lifetime Points Redeemable Rewards Expert UX Designer — Bike Angels I’m Eliza, and I’ve been working on Bike Angels for two years as a UX designer on the Bike Angels Team. I work with the team to think of ways to improve the Bike Angels experience and hopefully make it more engaging. Most recently, I’ve been working on the new redeemable rewards structure. I'm a Bike Angel in San Francisco, a landscape with a lower density of points due to lower bike density, so my experience is a bit different than Angels in New York. I've travelled to New York various times to better understand Bike Angel point earning patterns, study point discrepancies between neighborhoods, and get a better sense of how efficient NYC Angels actually are! Ask me anything.

I echo Timmy and ask that you look into having “dead’ or malfunctioning stations get “grayed out” or highlighted in some way. One of the most frustrating things when Angel-riding is to go to a station only to find out it’s not working. Worse yet, to dock at such a station and the ride won’t end, which requires calling customer service, etc. I should think it’s not difficult for the system to know what stations are offline or having connectivity issues. Thanks.

I took a survey a while back regarding a feature to book a bike in advance. Is that still something that is being considered for annual members?

I notice that sometimes stations show that there are bikes available to check out, but when I arrive at the station, none of the docks work and all the bikes are stuck (presumably because the station is dead). Is there a way to have the app show when a station is out of commission? Thanks!

First of all, I feel your pain. I really do. We’ve passed that on, because it's great feedback. I know my friends on the teams that work on these problems are aware of it; it's just more complex than I wish it was. Paraphrasing what I hear from colleagues: The reality is that our stations sit on NYC streets for many, many years. We've come a long way in designing our hardware to be incredibly resilient to the challenges that the streets pose; plus, we have hard-working maintenance crews out there every day to make them work. But, things still go wrong (and we’re working hard to shrink that list). What could possibly go wrong, you may ask? The list would amaze you – skyscrapers blocking the sun from reaching our solar panels, trucks backing into our kiosks, even rats chewing through electric cables. (What, they got tired of pizza?) One of the things I've learned as a Bike Angel is "if something looks too good to be true, it probably is." Just one example: one afternoon I saw a 12-point pickup station in Union Square, surrounded by 6- to 12-point dropoff stations. I ran to the subway, got down there as fast as I could and... none of the bikes were releasing. That's why there was one pickup station surrounded by dropoff stations. I used a few words that would be unprofessional to share here (and I'm guessing you've used some of those words yourself). Worse yet: this wasn't the first time it had happened to me. I keep falling into that same trap: "look at all those pickup points, surrounded by miles of drop-off stations!" I'm slowly learning to switch to the Parking view, and to check a few times. If there are zero parking spots, and it stays that way for 30 minutes, it's probably a station not releasing bikes. I realize that isn't a long-term fix, and like I said, we’ll pass along the feedback.

Hi- We've all had the experience of picking up an e-bike that says it has e.g. 23 miles on the bike (white) or the app (blue) , but as soon as you get away from the station, to an area without other bikes ( e.g. Northern manhattan) it craps out. This happens to me very often. Riding an e-bike with no power up a steep hill is Not fun, and it is a sure way to loose a streak. So whatever can be done to prevent this would be great. Also, is there any efficient/ effective way to be refunded for the e-charge in this situation? Thanks!

Jess

Bike Angels Team

2 years ago

Bike Angels Community AMA 2023

UPDATE: This is thread is closed for new AMA questions. Feel free to add kudos to any unanswered questions! We’ll continue to monitor this thread, and of course the community is always open for members to post new topics and feedback. Big Thanks to Angels that joined in the conversation!

Our first AMA is live—drop your questions below. 🎉

As a reminder, our AMA is more passive than a traditional AMA, and will remain open for one week.

Some helpful links:

robert_halo | Robert

13,165 Lifetime Points (As of today I have 11,415 lifetime points. But just wait until tomorrow....)
Internal Mega Angel
Software Engineer — Lyft Transit and Bikes

I’m Robert, and I'm a strong believer in Bike Share as something that makes the world a better place. I use it and public transit all the time. The benefits in terms of pollution reduction, fewer cars on the road, etc. are fantastic. I also really love meeting other Angels. There's something wonderful about seeing the other person also dashing between stations and staring at their phone the same way that I do. We are all ages, all backgrounds, and all genders. We are often intense, but Doing Good. Hoping to meet more and more folks while out moving bikes.

Although I don’t work on Bike Angels directly, I'm an active internal user (over 12k points), and I actively give early feedback and try my best to catch things and represent folks in the Angel community. Ask me Anything.

Remco | Remco

3,674 Lifetime Points
Community Mega Angel
Software Engineer — Bike Angels

I’m Remco, and I’ve worked on the Bike Angels Team for more than 3 years. Most recently, I’ve been working on tools that help the team simulate rides and ride conditions. My lifetime score is 3276; Even though we can test Bike Angels features just through software in our pre-production environment, I really want to go out to earn some points every week because it feels different if you need to bike and walk for your points.

I find reading the balance between what's needed for the system and fun to do for the riders challenging, and seeing people get really caught up and excited about Bike Angeling super rewarding. Ask me anything.

eliza | Eliza

206 Lifetime Points
Redeemable Rewards Expert
UX Designer — Bike Angels

I’m Eliza, and I’ve been working on Bike Angels for two years as a UX designer on the Bike Angels Team. I work with the team to think of ways to improve the Bike Angels experience and hopefully make it more engaging. Most recently, I’ve been working on the new redeemable rewards structure.

I'm a Bike Angel in San Francisco, a landscape with a lower density of points due to lower bike density, so my experience is a bit different than Angels in New York. I've travelled to New York various times to better understand Bike Angel point earning patterns, study point discrepancies between neighborhoods, and get a better sense of how efficient NYC Angels actually are! Ask me anything.