One of the biggest drawbacks with bikeshare apps in every city we’ve been to is the lack of real time information while you’re riding.  Sure, the apps update in real time, but there’s no way for you to know if the station you’re heading to has an open dock without stopping to look at your phone.  However, there is a way to fix the problem using a fun little gadget called Beeline.

Sure there’s an open dock now, but what about when I get there?

As an example, say I want to ride from downtown to Whole Foods in Kakaako.  The station right outside the store has one open dock, but will it still be there by the time I get there?  Or should I stop at a wide-open station on the way rather than potentially having to backtrack?  That’s where Beeline comes into play.

Beeline is a simple navigation device that fits on your handlebars and points toward your destination (like this).  We found the project on Kickstarter after biking around Paris and wanting to deviate off our planned route and not get lost.  It’s already a pretty cool thing in itself, giving bearing and distance to your destination plus letting you set intermediate waypoints (helpful for finding bridges when things like rivers get in your way).  It would be even cooler if it worked with bikeshare apps to direct you to open stations rather than your exact destination.

If the docking station I want fills up, direct me to the next closest open one on the way.

In the example described above, instead of sending me directly to Whole Foods, Beeline would direct me to the nearest open dock.  If the one right outside the store is still open, it’ll send me there.  If it fills up while I’m enroute, it’ll send me to an alternate station which is on the way from downtown.  That would save me from having to backtrack twice, once via bike and then once again via foot.

The opposite routing would be even more useful.  If the closest dock to your destination is full and you head out toward an alternate one, Beeline could direct you to your preferred one if it opens up while you’re on the way.

Actually, to make this worthwhile, it’ll also need to have a minimum number of open docks that can be specified for each trip.  In the above example, even with one open dock I still couldn’t use it because Lisa would be with me.  That’s the case for most of our trips.  Well, at least the fun ones.