Nobody ended up taking me up on the invitation to confirm that all 65 Nice Ride stations in Minneapolis indeed exist. Nevertheless, Corby and I managed to obtain sufficient audit evidence to gain comfort over the existence assertion of the 65 stations.
We rarely strayed from our course, grabbing our first bikes at Birchwood Cafe and docking for the 65th time at Franklin & 21st Avenue. Other than dismounting for lunch at Punch Pizza in Northeast, picking up some water and Powerade at CVS on Hennepin Ave, and a brief call with a customer service rep (more about that below), we didn't waste much time in between stops. Our longest time between was only 10 minutes, and one of the station to station trips only took one minute (according to the My Trips function of the Nice Ride website).
It took us just shy of four cycling hours to complete the ride and my estimate for mileage was 36. The Nice Ride account login put it at 27.2 miles, but their assumptions seem a little faulty to me. If I have time, I'll complete a "complex estimates" practice aid, retrace our steps on Google maps to get some more comfort over management's estimate. I'm kidding about the practice aid, I just wanted an excuse to slip in some auditor-speak.
We did have to backtrack once, since a glitch in the system kept us from checking out another bike after we had docked at the downtown library station. After we were denied trying to check out every single back at the station, I called customer service and had what can only be described as a ridiculous conversation with this woman.
She instructed us to check the ID numbers of the bikes to find the ones we had just returned, so she could then release them for our use. The problem was, the bikes that she had in the system were not at the dock. She told me there should be 22 bikes at the station, and when I assured her there were only 20, she pretty much called me negligent and a liar, albeit in polite terms.
I figured telling this lady that this wasn't my first rodeo wouldn't overcome her obstinance so instead I proposed that we return to the previous station to check the ID numbers. I kept her on the line for two blocks, and sure enough, the bike IDs in question were there. Only the tech wizards at NiceRideMN will be able to figure what happened on that one.
Overall successfully completing the challenge was the "cherry on the spoon" of an otherwise perfect bike commuting week, and we even scored free jerseys for our efforts. I would definitely do this again if anyone needs a sherpa, or if some visitors wanted to check out some of the popular Minneapolis landmarks from the seat of a green two wheeler.
Week 94 Summary (September 6 - 10)
Monday - No commute (Labor Day)
Tues - Friday: Bicycle
Mileage Count (Fiscal YTD)
9/12/10 - 459.0 miles
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2 comments:
There's a "bicycle rodeo" joke in here somewhere - I just can't find it. :)
Congratulations on your successful existence assertion test!
Were you listening to the Dude's story? (aka, did you follow the link? It's not like I've never counted cycles before...)
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