Give us this day our daily Bikeshare experiences

RantWoman is digesting interesting points from Bikeshare events she has been near recently..
Seattle DOT has sent people out to do field surveys about bikeshare parking issues. GOOD! The surveys show that 70% of the bikes they located were parked appropriately. 25% were parked in some way that was problematic but not in a way that blocks something like a bus stop or a curb ramp or a sidewalk or in bonus situations all three. And only 5% of the bikes were parked badly.

How not to park,
This week

Okayyyy. RantWoman is trying to fit that percentage into her actual experience. RantWoman for instances seems to encounter one company's bikes every week on her regular path to her house of worship. SOMEONE needs to learn parking manners.

Here we also encounter the problem of how to report and how Bikeshare companies might be asked to interact. RantWoman just is not going to grab a bike and try to look for contact info to complain.  RantWoman can see enough color to tell the companies apart but lots of RantWoman's friends cannot. So RantWoman would wish for a centralized reporting option that could collect data from social media nad by phone for people who do not do social media.

RantWoman tends to snap a picture on her smartphone, though RantWoman is not always confident her phone has captured the key issues. In any case RantWoman tends to  tweet the photo into the universe, sometimes with a topical hashtag, sometimes addressed to @seattledot but that is variable. On, and RantWoman does nto always get the picture tweeted out the same day. Maybe the bike has already been moved but RantWoman still wants her grip noted especially if she over time finds problems in the same location. In other words< rantWoman wants her gripes counted but recognizes that adds complexity as far as standards for dealing  with problems in a timely way.

RantWoman also suspects there is an exposure effect: the more one is out in the pedestrian environment, the greater the odds that one will encounter a problem bike.

If it were up to RantWoman:

--ALL bicyclists would wear helmets. Or people who are trying out cycling would be allowed some grace period but they would have to pay higher bikeshare rental rates until they got a helmet. RantWoman will leave figuring out how to verify that to someone else.
   RantWoman assumes it is just weird coincidence that as soon as the Seattle needs a helmert lawidea wandered into her head tweets showed up complaining about helmet laws as another excuse to harass black and brown people.

RantWoman is kind of square though. It is one thing to live proudly with disabilities. It is quite another to acquire one when it can be avoided. Using a bike helmet is as RantWoman understands statistics a really good way to reduced one's odds of injuries. As far as RantWoman knows the laws of physics do not discriminate. Everyone should wear helmets. They should be easy to acquire. Bikeshare companies could even promote helmet use. No helmet = HIGHER rates.  if people can prove they are wearing a helmet their ride should be cheaper.  If only RantWoman ruled the world.

--And one more thing: No bicyclists would ride on the sidewalk. RantWoman does not really care whether it's bikeshare or Seattle police or whoever: RantWoman finds bikes on sidewalks where she is trying to walk a nuisance. For one think RantWoman lives in fear that Ambassador Thwack will clip someone's wheel and send the bicyclist flying.