Edinburgh Electric Bike Hire Proposal

[rooel]

See this story in Edinburgh Evening News 28 05 13:

Edinburgh mulls electric bike hire scheme - Transport - Scotsman.com

 

[funkylyn]

See this story in Edinburgh Evening News 28 05 13:

Edinburgh mulls electric bike hire scheme - Transport - Scotsman.com

Thanks for the interesting link.
Sounds like a great step in the right direction and e-bikes will be perfect for Edinburgh.

The response from Ian Maxwell as spokesman for cycling campaign group "Spokes" however, bemoans the 'fact' and problem that e-bikes need " docking stations "......making them sound like space shuttles when all they need is a normal 3 pin socket.......hardly rocket science to solve....... lol

Lynda

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I hope they're not hoping to use bikes like those in the picture. There's a reason that Boris bikes have to look so ugly: They don't share components with normal bikes to stop the possibility that when you come to use one, the crank, wheels, brakes, tyres, pedals, seat, or anything else is missing.

 

[flecc]

The response from Ian Maxwell as spokesman for cycling campaign group "Spokes" however, bemoans the 'fact' and problem that e-bikes need " docking stations "......making them sound like space shuttles when all they need is a normal 3 pin socket.......hardly rocket science to solve....... lol

Users can't be trusted to plug into a simple socket after a ride, so they will need docking stations to record the timed physical return of the bike at the point of plugging in to enable the cost as well as the battery to be charged. That's far from being "a normal 3 pin socket".

 

[GaRRy]

Users can't be trusted to plug into a simple socket after a ride, so they will need docking stations to record the timed physical return of the bike at the point of plugging in to enable the cost as well as the battery to be charged. That's far from being "a normal 3 pin socket".

Dont boris bike have effectivly docking stations as well ?. Cant be that difficult to make one that includes a charge connection as part of the locking mechanism ?

 

[funkylyn]

Users can't be trusted to plug into a simple socket after a ride, so they will need docking stations to record the timed physical return of the bike at the point of plugging in to enable the cost as well as the battery to be charged. That's far from being "a normal 3 pin socket".

I think that they are just going to charge users a fixed fee per annum of around £50 flecc which sounds like a real bargain doesnt it.
The charging points they were talking about were just to enable people to travel further whilst using the bikes......so, I presume, participating businesses willing to allow a re charge en route, a sort of Edinburgh version of our CycleCharge scheme maybe ?

It does seem amazing that they would charge so little, Im sure they will have to put some sort of time limit on it surely.

Lynda

 

[Mike63]

I think that they are just going to charge users a fixed fee per annum of around £50 flecc which sounds like a real bargain doesnt it.

....sorry...never happen....

 

[flecc]

I think like Mike that it's impractical to charge in that way, it will have to be like the Paris Velib or London Barclays bikes schemes with docking stations, but with additional specially designed charging connections. Very expensive to implement and only practical for a very large scale scheme, as would be the design and production of the special heavy-duty non-standard e-bikes that are essential to this kind of scheme as Dave says above.

 

[Chris the Sheep]

I see the comments are full of the usual anti-cyclist bile......

 

[Scimitar]

I think that they are just going to charge users a fixed fee per annum of around £50 flecc which sounds like a real bargain doesnt it.

The way I read it is, I think that will be £50 to register or per annum and priced per hire/day/whatever afterwards. It would still be very cost-competitive for commuting or short journeys in and around the city. Tourists (nearly wrote trouserists) would have some facility made available to them that would be fairly con-proof, to avoid blaggers simply registering and nicking them.
For charging points - I wouldn't trust the public with a mains charger, so it will have to be Low Voltage docking stations and the on-board info can be downloaded simultaneously. In fact, it would be able to bill your CC per journey/time almost immediately.

 

[Pro-connected]

As some-one who routinely uses an electric bike in Edinburgh, I'm pretty sure this will be a non-starter for at least a decade. That's not because of any of the technical or administrative reasons described above, but because there are roads in Edinburgh that the Government of Eritrea would be ashamed of. This follows a decade in which £764million has been spent here on a (still not-working) tram system, and about £764 has been spent on road maintenance. There are parts of Edinburgh where, if I'm on foot, I keep an eye on the potholes not just to avoid getting drenched when buses go through the water at the bottom of them but because of the very real risk of hit in the face by chunks of flying tarmac as more of the road surface breaks up.