Forum Discussion

DemonAngel's avatar
DemonAngel
Resourceful Rider
2 months ago

App map says ride is positive. But docking terminates streak.

Hi. 

As I take a bike out of a dock, I stare at the app map to make sure that the dock is either positive or zero. 

As I dock a bike, I stare at the app map to make sure that the dock is either positive or zero. 

For every ride, I make sure that either undocking or docking is positive and the ride is net positive.  

No negatives for my rides!

Yet, three times in the past week, docking a bike has terminated my 3X streak. 

As best I can figure, in the few seconds while the Lyft computer system is processing the undocking scan or in the few seconds while the Lyft computer system is processing the docking of the bike, the dock switches to a negative number.  That sequence of events unfairly terminates my 3X streaks. 

To be fair to us Angels, we, somehow, need a few seconds of grace so that we can take bikes and dock bikes without getting blindsided by an invisible streak-ending computer system reset. 

Lyft's amazing programmers could program each dock to flash for five seconds a warning that the dock's points are about to change.  When we Angels see the warning, we could wait to see what the new number is. If need be, we could head for a different dock and keep our streaks going. 

Or, perhaps Lyft's amazing programmers could program the Lyft computer system to wait until five seconds after a number change before it applies a dock's new numbers to rides. 

One way or another, we Angels need five seconds or so of grace to keep our streaks going when we make our pick-up and drop-off decisions based on the information that we see on the app map. 

Thank you in advance for your ingenious solution!

  • Hi there, thank you for posting your question in the community. Do you mind specifying the dates and times of the rides in question? I want to investigate a bit further. 

    To clarify, when you unlock a bike, the Bike Angels points are 'locked in' for the ride. Meaning, the points for the stations at the time of unlocking dictate the ride's points totals—regardless of the duration of the ride, which, in turn, determines if a streak is maintained or broken.

  • Jess's avatar
    Jess
    Bike Angels Team

    Hi there, thank you for posting your question in the community. Do you mind specifying the dates and times of the rides in question? I want to investigate a bit further. 

    To clarify, when you unlock a bike, the Bike Angels points are 'locked in' for the ride. Meaning, the points for the stations at the time of unlocking dictate the ride's points totals—regardless of the duration of the ride, which, in turn, determines if a streak is maintained or broken.

    • DemonAngel's avatar
      DemonAngel
      Resourceful Rider

      Jess, 

      Since I learned from you that "when you unlock a bike, the Bike Angels points are 'locked in' for the ride;" I've been on 80 or so rides without a break in my 3X streak.  (Though, once, I did have to walk a mile and a half or so to keep it going.)

      Thank you!

      I'm marking your clarification as a solution.

      Best regards,

      Jerry

      • Jess's avatar
        Jess
        Bike Angels Team

        Reviewing these rides in our system a little further, I see that I initally read these rides as neutral, but in fact they were non-point earning rides. 

        The ride on 8/3 @ 10:05 was a negative-to-negative ride, and the ride on 8/7 @ 8pm was a positive to positive ride. Hopefully the timing was a factor here since both rides occur sorta near the time interval changes. Let us know if you have other questions. 

    • DemonAngel's avatar
      DemonAngel
      Resourceful Rider

      Jess,

      Thank you for looking into my streak terminations. 

      I did not know that unlocking a bike locked in the points for both the beginning AND THE END of the ride.  I always mistakenly thought that the points at the destination dock could change during the ride. 

      My mistaken understanding may be responsible for ending my streaks.  

      The three recent rides that unexpectedly ended my 3X streaks were these:

      August 3, 2024

      Price: $0.00

      Start Time: 10:04 AM

      Duration: 1 min

      223-3179

      YOUR TRIP

      Washington Pl & Broadway

      Started at 10:04 AM

      Washington Pl & Greene St

      Ended at 10:05 AM

      Free unlock$0.00Total$0.00

      August 7, 2024

      Price: $0.00

      Start Time: 8:00 PM

      Duration: 4 min

      504-8624

      YOUR TRIP

      Murray St & West St

      Started at 8:00 PM

      North Moore St & Greenwich St

      Ended at 8:04 PM

       

       

      August 7, 2024

      Price: $0.00

      Start Time: 9:33 PM

      Duration: 3 min

      271-5555

      YOUR TRIP

      Mercer St & Bleecker St

      Started at 9:33 PM

      Great Jones St

      Ended at 9:36 PM

      Free unlock$0.00Total$0.00

       

      Perhaps my misinformed reliance on the app-map data at the ends of the rides caused the streak terminations. I do not know.  

      Thanks ever so much!

      You're terrific!

      Jerry