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by madflo
3031 days ago
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I am living in Lille, France, where Gobee.bike begun its French expansion. I am commuting by bike and as a cyclist I do agree with the comment above. Dockless bikes quickly became a nuisance, a few days after gobee.bike released their fleet. People left those bikes everywhere, including on pedestrian space and bicycle lanes. On a personal note : there is a well maintained and dock-based bike sharing system provided by the town council in Lille. If bike sharing, as some point, become a part of the town's infrastructure — see: Paris with Velib, Lyon and Lille — I do not see the need nor the space for concurrent offerings from different bike networks. |
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Velov works really well but there is a trade off. The local government gives away the rights to all the external advertising in the city to the company behind the Velov bikes. The company provides the bikes and, in turn, gets to on sell the advertising space on bus shelters, outdoor signs, pretty much everywhere in the city it seems. A little bit of competition would not be a bad thing, I think, though it would be hard for any competitor to overcome the advantages that a big advertising company like JCD has in terms of their revenues from the signage.