Moscow bike rental has been around for many years. Nevertheless, the service still has a lot of problems. In this article, I will talk about them from the side of a regular customer and try to offer my solutions.
To begin with, I will briefly recall the mechanics of the service.
There are many bike stations in the city. You can take a bike to any of them, you can return it to any of them. You cannot take or return a bike anywhere else.
To start using the service, you need to buy a subscription. A subscription is sold for different periods: you can buy it for a day, or you can immediately buy it for a season. The subscription gives the right to take bicycles. However, you won't be able to ride as much as you want. You can ride for free only for the first 30, 45 or 60 minutes. This duration depends on the chosen subscription. After these minutes you will have to ride for a fee. That is, you will spend money on top of the subscription price. However, nothing prevents you from parking after 25 minutes, taking your bike again and riding for another 25 minutes. That's what everyone does if they want to ride longer.
Now I will tell you about the problems that I noticed over a year and a half of using the service.
1. Lots of broken bicycles
I consider a bike broken if its wheels are deflated, a chain has fallen off, or at least one brake does not work. Yes, all this can be stumbled upon.
There are also large ones that do not have the listed defects, but they cannot be rented. A technical error occurs while trying. What is the problem is a mystery. The station may not be able to connect to the network.
There are bicycles that do not have one or more buttons pressed. This can be fun. For example, if you have the number 7 in your login, and the number 7 is not pressed, then you cannot rent such a large one.
It often happens that you come to a station and have to try a few bicycles before you come across a working one. Or you don’t come across and go on foot, annoyed. Workers are large at some stations (for example, near the Park Kultury metro station), quickly disassembled by couriers (actual starting from 2020) or other customers.
2. Broken bicycles are not marked
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However, if there is a right to be late, I use it with pleasure. Velobike, you are doing a good job and I wish you to become better.