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Deutsche Bahn bikes

Started by OzCableguy · · Last activity · 5 posts · 598 views

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Original section
Australia and New Zealand
Published
25 June 2006
Last activity
27 June 2006
Original author
OzCableguy
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5
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Public discussion
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  1. Original post
    OzCableguy
    Archived post
    #1

    http://www.young-germany.de/call_a_bike.html

    Deutsche Bahn bikes offer a quick and easy way around town.

    It's late - or is it early? Well, I am stuck at any rate. No bus, no tram,
    no cash, no taxi. It's too far to walk - and anyway, I hate walking. But I
    am in luck. There it is propped up against the lamppost. My red and white
    ticket home - a Call-a-Bike.

    The Call-a-Bikes are rental bikes. But not like regular rental bikes. They
    are spread throughout the city and locked up at random places for a start.
    They are provided and maintained by Germany's railway operator Deutsche Bahn
    (DB) in Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich. My random place is this
    lamppost in front of me. And as I am already registered with Call-a-Bike, I
    punch in the number on the bike into my cell phone and wait for the
    automated voice to give me the code that will unlock the bike.

    The clock starts ticking away. The cost structure, unfortunately, is
    Darwinist - favoring the fittest - as prices are calculated not in distance
    traveled but per minute. For every minute, you are charged 7 cents or 5
    cents if you own a German rail discount train travel card (Bahncard). Eager
    to make up time, I speedily peddle through the streets.

    In fact not everyone thought that 7 or even 5 cents was such a good deal.
    (Maybe they weren't fit?): Last year a group of hackers set about
    manipulating the software to permit free use of the bikes. The hackers
    claimed to have altered around 10 percent of the bikes in Berlin. But
    Deutsche Bahn updated the software on the bikes and put an end to the
    hackers' harm - at least for now.

    The bikes are surprisingly comfortable as they are equipped with shock
    absorbers and comfy saddles. The breaks work a treat (so no lawsuits there)
    and you can even tackle hills with eight gears to click through. What's
    especially pleasing is that the gears actually work.

    Then, before I know it, I am free-wheeling down my street. The trip's taken
    me 25 minutes. An automated voice tells me that that's ?1.75 when I call to
    get the locking code. It's thus a low-budget alternative to Germany's costly
    taxis.

    October 2005

    --
    www.ozcableguy.com
    www.oztechnologies.com

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  2. cfsmtb
    Archived post
    #2
    OzCableguy said:


    In fact not everyone thought that 7 or even 5 cents was such a good deal.
    (Maybe they weren't fit?): Last year a group of hackers set about
    manipulating the software to permit free use of the bikes. The hackers
    claimed to have altered around 10 percent of the bikes in Berlin. But
    Deutsche Bahn updated the software on the bikes and put an end to the
    hackers' harm - at least for now.

    For all the effort to prove whatever point ... why bother? Wonder if the same hackers would stuff around with rental cars for a lark?

    Deutsche Bahn sounds like the local (non-privatised) equivalent of Connex. Now the notion of PT companies providing extra incentives for cycling .. there's a precedent that should be taken up.

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  3. flyingdutch
    Archived post
    #3

    the same kind of people who will spend 6 hours making a half hour task do-able in 10! 🙄

    Report
  4. Euan
    Archived post
    #4
    flyingdutch said:

    the same kind of people who will spend 6 hours making a half hour task
    do-able in 10! 🙄

    Did that at my old place of work, except it was a one our task which I
    pruned to 5 minutes. Shared my little script with the rest of my
    colleagues and over 3 years saved 88 hours. Take off the eight hours it
    took me to figure it out and that's eighty hours I saved the company.

    What did we do with it? Why watched more TV of course! The wonders of
    night shift.
    --
    Cheers
    Euan

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  5. TimC
    Archived post
    #5

    On 2006-06-25, flyingdutch (aka Bruce)
    was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

    Quoted message said:

    the same kind of people who will spend 6 hours making a half hour task
    do-able in 10! 🙄

    Where's my workday gone?

    --
    TimC
    Weeks of coding can save you hours of planning. --unknown
    Like most computer techie people, I'll happily spend 6 hours trying to figure
    out how to do a 3 hour job in 10 minutes. --Rev. James Cort, ASR

    Report

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