Branches in the Limelight
This article was written about a year ago, during the explosion of vehicular convenience through mobile applications. Lime Bikes have spread throughout the country and overseas as an effective and cost-efficient method of travel. The Lime Bike company has to be aware of social, economical, and often political networks to function and expand in a profitable manner. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at these networks and how they relate to the knowledge gained in class.
Every morning, at the top of Libe Slope, I remind myself that I should invest in a bus pass. Or perhaps I should have gotten a bike. I’ve seen the bright green bikes littered around campus, and I’m drawn to the prospect of an easier morning commute to classes. But a few questions keep me from snagging a Lime Bike in the mornings. Where do I find one? How much better are my other options? These questions can be answered by analyzing the network of bikes and the networks related to their communication systems.
Lime Bike’s networks resemble communication networks through transportation and information networks through mobile location services. This article brought my attention to the many networks woven throughout the company’s product. The company’s location services allow potential riders to find nearby bikes. They determine which bikes are most convenient for the user and communicate this connection through Lime’s network of communication servers. In this case, the central node could be considered the rider and user would choose a path within the network of distance calculations. When the rider abandons the bike, the information network of bike locations will move the bike’s node to the new position to be analyzed for the next rider.
My latter aforementioned question, “how much better are my other options,” can be answered with a quick Google search into more current events surrounding the Lime Bike company: my other options are much better. The company has been replacing bikes throughout the country with electric scooters. Perhaps this is because the company realized that the nodal riders have a stronger connection to their destinations if scooters were offered. The weak connection between distances is strengthened with a more convenient vehicle. It is interesting to speculate how the company makes these decisions. Do they analyze these strong versus weak connections? How do they proclaim a connection to be strong or weak?