On Jul 23, 10:19 am, David Walters wrote:

On Fri, 23 Jul 2010 01:53:33 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T wrote:

On Jul 23, 9:22 am, David Walters wrote:
You can opt to auto-renew but I don't know why you would ever want to
do that. Even for the annual access charge you might as well only renew
it when you use it.

What's unclear is how key-holding members will reactivate their key
with a new access period - e.g. say I've got a key and want 7-day
access, will I have to go on-line first and 'order' that, or will I be
able to turn up at a docking station and sort it out - though I'm not
sure the latter will be possible as IIRC there's no key 'hole' in the
pay stations, just in each of thecycledocks themselves. So if one
just turns up with a key that doesn't have an 'live' access period/
membership associated with it will one even be able to just take a
bike and get 24-hour access - or will the key be no good unless it's
re-activated online? (I suspect the latter.)

There is a key reader in the pay stations which lets you do things like
check your hire history so you might be able to also pay for access
there.

When I was around town yesterday (on my bike no less) I noticed that a few
of the pay stations are already turned on and active - an example being the
one on Bernard Street opposite Russell Square tube station. The simple
touch-screen user interface seemed familiar - the screens look a bit like
those on a ticket machine, maybe it's just the New Johnston font. IIRC there
were six initial options, including balance, print receipt, and usage
history - or wording along those lines.

I also note that there's a usage history available online for those with web
accounts (which is presumably everyone with a membership and a key).

On Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:14:49 +0100, Mizter T wrote:
When I was around town yesterday (on my bike no less) I noticed that a few
of the pay stations are already turned on and active - an example being the
one on Bernard Street opposite Russell Square tube station.

About 2 weeks ago I found one on Union Street in Southwark that thought
it had bikes for hire, according to it's neighbours, and was happy to
take my credit card as a casual user. I'm afraid I chickened out of
the transaction as I wasn't sure how I would be able to return the
non-existent bike.

On Jul 25, 10:00*pm, David Walters wrote:

On Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:14:49 +0100, Mizter T wrote:
When I was around town yesterday (on my bike no less) I noticed that a few
of the pay stations are already turned on and active - an example being the
one on Bernard Street opposite Russell Square tube station.

About 2 weeks ago I found one on Union Street in Southwark that thought
it had bikes for hire, according to it's neighbours, and was happy to
take my credit card as a casual user. I'm afraid I chickened out of
the transaction as I wasn't sure how I would be able to return the
non-existent bike.

You could have had a double first there - the first person to be
charged for the non-return of a bike, and the first to test out their
dispute resolution process too!

The one I played with briefly at Russell Square seemed to have the
self-awareness that it had no bikes for hire, and neither did any of
its neighbours. Which reminds me - the virtual 'button' that did catch
my eye was the 'this docking station is full, need more time to return
bike elsewhere' button (though it was rather better worded than that!)
- on pressing it, the pay station wanted either my membership key or
the payment card I'd used. But if this really works as it should then
that's great - one won't be penalised for going over the half-hour or
hour mark if the destination docking station is full.

I s'pose one needs to factor in the potential for the people in front
to be conducting some painfully slow transaction at the pay station,
though if it's already full of bikes then perhaps that would be a less
busy time anyway, and many (if not all?) of the pay stations seem to
have two 'faces' (on opposite sides of each other).