FYI, a third party archive link is still preferable for some, as gift articles on nytimes.com still require javascript to be enabled.
This feels really scummy in the "this is why we can't have nice things" sense.
A system put in place to incentivise helping people, abused by a few to inconvenience customers for pocket change.
Yeah. My favorite part:
“How are we cheating?” said one Angel in a baggy gray T-shirt, black athletic shorts and sneakers, who declined to give his name. “If Lyft wants something else, they can change the algorithm.”
I don't think anyone would buy that he doesn't know it's cheating, but that won't stop him from attempting to rationalize his behavior because he likes the money.
It's not really fair to say $6k a month is pocket change. I agree with one of the quotes that if they want some different behavior, they should incentivise something different.
I was thinking more that each individual act that inconveniences others was pocket change.
But I agree that the accumulation of $6k of it in a month is not mere pocket change. I'd wonder if it constitutes some kind of fraud or some other crime.
If it was just screwing the company, I wouldn't even be mad. It's the people who suddenly can't get a bike or can't return a bike at a given station because of these peoples' selfishness that I'm annoyed for.
The people who are paid to make sure things run smoothly are doing the exact opposite with zero regard to who it hurts. Shitty behaviour.
It's not like it's money from thin air, the legitimate users pay the company, and the company is being "scammed" (or whatever it is - Scam 2.0?) by these "Angels". But obviously the company realizes the whole scheme is still cheaper than employing actual bike movers.
Maybe they can change the algorithm, if an "Angel" moves a bike from a full station to an empty one, they only get rewarded if a "legitimate" user then uses their bike. Not if it's their own ass who's going to ride it back to the origin station in 15 minutes' time. But then the algo needs to ensure that the next user isn't just the Assangel's friend.
As we all know, if it's a company, it's not a scam and there's no such thing as victim blaming. Instead, it's "perverse incentives".
Washington, DC has a similar program [1]. I believe Capital Bikeshare is also maintained by Lyft in some way. I wonder if this one is harder to abuse or if it's just that NYC has a larger pop than DC so there is a larger pool of bikes to collect?
It seems like you can only turn the rebalancing points back into gift cards at best, which would make it really hard to turn your $6k into rent money at any scale.
I also feel like just one empowered customer service person with a banhammer could seriously curb the behavior in the article. The problem is that they're 'solving' the imbalances that they're creating, so its pretty detectable.
Old stuff, bike renting companies were proposing that in Brussels years ago, before doing that will their own employees. I guess the scheme has been abused.
Is there anything portable you can get that you can just slap on a bike and have it move electrically? Maybe some small battery+motor that can clamp directly to one of the gears or something?
Gift article link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/19/nyregion/citi-bike-scam-n...
FYI, a third party archive link is still preferable for some, as gift articles on nytimes.com still require javascript to be enabled.
This feels really scummy in the "this is why we can't have nice things" sense.
A system put in place to incentivise helping people, abused by a few to inconvenience customers for pocket change.
Yeah. My favorite part:
“How are we cheating?” said one Angel in a baggy gray T-shirt, black athletic shorts and sneakers, who declined to give his name. “If Lyft wants something else, they can change the algorithm.”
I don't think anyone would buy that he doesn't know it's cheating, but that won't stop him from attempting to rationalize his behavior because he likes the money.
It's not really fair to say $6k a month is pocket change. I agree with one of the quotes that if they want some different behavior, they should incentivise something different.
I was thinking more that each individual act that inconveniences others was pocket change.
But I agree that the accumulation of $6k of it in a month is not mere pocket change. I'd wonder if it constitutes some kind of fraud or some other crime.
If it was just screwing the company, I wouldn't even be mad. It's the people who suddenly can't get a bike or can't return a bike at a given station because of these peoples' selfishness that I'm annoyed for.
The people who are paid to make sure things run smoothly are doing the exact opposite with zero regard to who it hurts. Shitty behaviour.
It's not like it's money from thin air, the legitimate users pay the company, and the company is being "scammed" (or whatever it is - Scam 2.0?) by these "Angels". But obviously the company realizes the whole scheme is still cheaper than employing actual bike movers.
Maybe they can change the algorithm, if an "Angel" moves a bike from a full station to an empty one, they only get rewarded if a "legitimate" user then uses their bike. Not if it's their own ass who's going to ride it back to the origin station in 15 minutes' time. But then the algo needs to ensure that the next user isn't just the Assangel's friend.
As we all know, if it's a company, it's not a scam and there's no such thing as victim blaming. Instead, it's "perverse incentives".
https://archive.md/5PKnb
Washington, DC has a similar program [1]. I believe Capital Bikeshare is also maintained by Lyft in some way. I wonder if this one is harder to abuse or if it's just that NYC has a larger pop than DC so there is a larger pool of bikes to collect?
[1] https://capitalbikeshare.com/bike-angels/rewards
It seems like you can only turn the rebalancing points back into gift cards at best, which would make it really hard to turn your $6k into rent money at any scale.
I also feel like just one empowered customer service person with a banhammer could seriously curb the behavior in the article. The problem is that they're 'solving' the imbalances that they're creating, so its pretty detectable.
Old stuff, bike renting companies were proposing that in Brussels years ago, before doing that will their own employees. I guess the scheme has been abused.
Is there anything portable you can get that you can just slap on a bike and have it move electrically? Maybe some small battery+motor that can clamp directly to one of the gears or something?
https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/best-electric-bike-conv...