Jess' "Bike Angels Beginner FAQ"
Jess' "Bike Angels Beginner FAQ" is a helpful addition to this forum, but it would benefit greatly (and is key to the Bike Angels experience) if it also addressed common problems and glitches people might encounter, along with options for resolutions (which are currently quite limited ). Aside from the expected technical issues, the real problem is the lack of support and the frustration of uncredited points. In the old days, they'd look it up, realize that an error was made, give you the points, and you move on. Those days are long gone. Lyft X ignores the facts and data presented, and refuses to explain why, then ignores any further communication. The phone support, while friendly, is now 100% unhelpful. They might keep you on the line for 30 minutes only to tell you the station was down, without crediting your points, and then refer you to email support. Aside from Jess, the email support is the best, but their communication is slow and cumbersome. Despite taking great care, I frequently lose points for legitimate rides and have given up on complaining. In Chicago, Divvy allows e-Bikes to be parked out of stations, and they're scattered all over the city. I track them down, often finding them in obscure locations. Returning these e-bikes to mainstream areas is crucial for the system’s health, but e-Bikes out of stations also carry the highest risk of not getting credited points.
Idea: Always Offer Low-assist option for eBikes (next-gen)
As many riders know, the low-assist mode for next-gen eBikes is only available if there are no classic/acoustic bikes at the station. When you then scan the eBike using the app you choose between low assist and full assist. Citi Bike ought to offer the option of low assist for next-gen eBikesregardless of the presence of a classic/acoustic bike to accommodate. If you agree with this idea, please like this post to show your interest to the Bike Angel team. For me there are two reasons why I'd like to see this: Classic bikes have seats that don't go high enough for riders 6'1 or taller which can lead to knee pain for long or uphill rides. Next-gen bikes allow for the seat to move higher but more often than not I have to pay for this privilege because there are classic bikes at the station. On more than one occasion I don't get the pedal assist option for eBikes because there's one classic bike at a broken dock that can't be removed so I'm forced to pay for a full power eBike ride when I don't want to/shouldn't have to. To streamline the experience, this should be an opt-in option so that full-assist riders used to scanning and riding aren't burdoned by having to choose full-assist each time. Lastly, in conjunction with this idea, please offer users the pedal assist preference via the iPhone and Android apps (under Settings). For some reason it is only offered via https://account.citibikenyc.com/profile after logging into your account making it frustrating and confusing for riders who primarily use the app and can't find anywhere to update their preference:
IDEA - incentive for moving eBikes
Somebody posted that there is no incentive to move ebikes. I had an idea this morning for how to create an incentive. The algo could be optimized such that Citibike could recognize situations where Dock A was ebike heavy, but Dock B had few or no ebikes. Since it improves the network to more evenly distribute ebikes, the algo could temporarily "toggle off" all regular bikes at Dock A making them out of service -- which would create an incentive for Bike Angels to move an ebike in low-pedal assist mode (free) from Dock A. Since Dock B nearby had vacancies, BAs should spot that opportunity and move the ebike. Once Dock B got enough ebikes, Citibike could "toggle on" the regular bikes at Dock A, and return to normal system function. The only people who would be mad about this algo modification are non-BA users who go to Dock A hoping/expecting to use a pedal bike, but find none available. On the other hand, for every person who is upset at Dock A, there is probably a person who goes to Dock B hoping to find an ebike and is delighted to find one (assuming a BA moved an ebike there), so on balance, as far as user experience goes, this algo change should be more or less neutral over time.Improve the Citi Bike Map
Problem: In the Citi Bike map (in the app) it is almost impossible to tell traffic flow direction for streets when browsing the map, an arguably important piece of information when biking in NYC. Similarly, reading street names is just as hard with them only appearing if you zoom in almost all the way! The green bike lane lines cover the street arrows which indicate the direction of traffic (I've circled two arrows that are being covered). Also, only two street name labels are showing here: Suggestions: Make it easier to see the traffic flow arrows by either making the direction arrows easier to see (change color, size, etc) or allow users to toggle the green bike lane overlay on the map on and off Make it easier to see/read street names and prioritize them over places of interest Add a toggle to show/hide places of interest on the map (restaurants, hotels, stores, etc) Lastly, an argument against improving the current experience might be to user the "directions" feature which will give you a correct route but to that I say that sometimes we just want to do an ad-hoc bike ride. Secondly, bike angels (like me) would love to better see street names and traffic flow directions I don't really use the directions feature because there's no way to simply put a pin on the map or tap on a station as your start and end address; we must type in the address which is time-consuming.Algo limitations downtown
I'm new to point farming but enjoy the gamified aspect. I've noticed that the algo does well in Midtown and UES at showing opportunities for local rebalancing, presumably because local supply/demand varies. Bike Angels on streaks can help here. But downtown, the supply/demand imbalance often seems regional, with literally ALL docks showing the same imbalance. (For example, early mornings) When this happens, Bike Angels have no incentive to work, and bikes will only be repositioned by long-haul riders, who almost by definition are not point farmers. Does Citibike understand why this regional asymmetry exist? Can it be solved, perhaps by off-hour en masse moves to create local imbalances?Is There a Bike Angels Reward for Returning Abandoned Citibike?
Is there a reward through the Bike Angels program for returning abandoned Citibikes that are left outside of stations? If so, what is the process for doing this? I often see bikes left around, but given my tight schedule, it doesn’t seem worth the effort without a clear incentive. A way to scan them to know that they are truly abandoned and receive substantial points for returning them would be ideal.
Pedal assist preference on ebike
In citibike help pages I see this info https://help.citibikenyc.com/hc/en-us/articles/360039406631-Riding-with-an-ebike In instances where there are no classic bikes at a station,memberscan now rent one of our new, next-gen silver ebikes in “classic mode.” This means that you can rent this ebike for no extra charge, but there will be little to no e-assist for the ride. To make this choice, you’ll see a screen after scanning the QR code that allows you to choose between riding with full assist or riding with low assist. But in divvy (chicago) help pages, which otherwise looks pretty similar, it doesn't have that section https://help.divvybikes.com/hc/en-us/articles/360046649911-Riding-with-an-ebike We have those same bikes as NYC, except they have a cable lock fitted for docking out of station. Is the low-cost ebike ride also possible in Chicago, riding with low assist? If so, how to select it? If not, why not?Big Change to the app?
There has been a big change to the Divvy app A great way to protect against losing your boost if a docking station status changed moments before grabbing a bike, was after selecting the exact docking station, scan the bike from within that open window What used to happen, if you were in danger of losing your boost, a warning would tell you. After losing my boost when I was sure about the docks status, and using the above technique, we tested, and that feature is gone. We switched from using the fob exactly for that protection, as more than a few times a "quick switch" caused us to loose boost. Does anyone remember that feature and is it in fact, gone? Thanks
