[ubikretail]

I built an app over it that attempts to predict the future state of any network. It later recommends addings/substractions in order to keep offer and demand balanced among stations.

It could work in about 440 cities but none of the big companies that lead this wanted this. What would you do with it?

[dwightgunning]

That depends why they don't want it. Did any explain this? Maybe you're not articulating the value prop?

That'll be a good way to decide whether to keep trying to sell to them, what to change etc.

If you've exhausted that you may look at other applications for the technology.

[ubikretail]

I found two reasons here: - They make money by using bikes as advertising space, so they do not really care about the overall quality of the system as long as they have a permanent exploitation contract.

- They use historic data to approach future situations. In spite they do not have alert systems, they seem to think this is enough. Although, when sun suddenly appears, the shore tends to get crowded and "locked" for hours; they doing nothing about it.

What my system was going to provide was smart routes for the vans, to add or subtract bikes on strategic places.

[Grue3]

I'm pretty sure all these companies already have a system like that. The problem is actually getting the bikes moved given the amount of personnel/vans they have.

[jpl56]

This is interesting, because when I'm in front of an empty station, the app would tell me when I get a chance to have someone park a bike. With an app telling me it should happen in less than 2mn, I can wait confidently. My network : Velib, Paris.