On 17/04/2019 4:37 p.m., David Scheidt wrote:
AMuzi wrote:
:On 4/17/2019 1:50 PM, wrote:
: On Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at 9:34:19 AM UTC-5, Frank Krygowski wrote:
: So, given that bike share bikes will be used by lots of novices,
: should they purposely be given weak front brakes?
: --
: - Frank Krygowski
:
: I'll argue about this assumption since I have nothing else to do. Do people who do not ride bikes ever, rent these communal bikes and ride them? I find that hard to believe. I can believe that young, fit, athletic people who work out, jog, but don't ride much, do rent these bikes. But I would still suspect they are familiar with bicycling and have ridden some. Bicycling, even these rental bikes, require effort and muscle and strength and sweat. Something a person who does not bicycle already, will NOT do.
:

:The Citi are motorized, with an electric motor & battery.
:For regular rental bikes you'd have a stronger argument but
:I don't know, haven't seen any local/tourist rental numbers.

Judging by what I see in Chicago, most people riding a Divvy bike are
not regular bike riders. Lots of tourists, particularly along the
lake. There is a base of users that use them for the first and last
miles of commutes. I don't know the actual numbers, though.




I have friends that live in downtown Montreal that use the Bixies.
Mostly they don't have safe places to secure their road bikes so they
opt for the bike share option.

But there are also a lot of tourists, students and local residents that
just use them. Anyone using one more than a block or so would likely
figure out the brakes though. Especially around the Plateau or Mont
Royal with the hills and traffic. I have not heard of anyone going OTB
on a Bixie. I don't think I'm seeing the issue here.