The Rise of the Electric Scooter • Hacker News Board

Re: The Rise of the Electric Scooter

#171

Post by easytiger » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 8:32 PM UTC

Zenst wrote: post #80

Here in the UK they are illegal (unless used on private land), which is sad as whilst they are illegal as technically a motor vehicle, needing some form of test, insurance, mot.... That has not happened and in limbo as clearly a need for some standards control etc, but an unwillingness to address that and more so a periodic fashion stopping of people upon such vehicles in an apathetic way that causes many to get one,…

In the UK, more specifically London, these are completely misused. Users act largely as pedestrians on ultra busy and extremely tiny ancient streets. They have no place here.

Re: The Rise of the Electric Scooter

#172

Post by mikestew » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 8:34 PM UTC

lacker wrote: post #49

How steep of a hill can you get up with these things? My street is pretty hilly and I would hate to shell out for a cool device that I have to lug the last two blocks to my house.

My Xiaomi becomes impractically slow around 15% (probably less, I've not properly measured). My Boosted Rev, I've yet to find anything in the Redmond, WA area that it won't climb with gusto. The Boosted cost $1600US, though.

Re: The Rise of the Electric Scooter

#173

Post by maccam94 » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 8:35 PM UTC

eldenbishop wrote: post #79

tick_tock_tick wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have the deal with the bike afterwords. Go for brunch in the mission and your friends are going back to the outer sunset with a scooter just fold it up and put it in the car with a bike either hope it's there when you get back, bike all the way, or go home then head over alone.

This exactly: bikes require planning and strategy and are not good for improvisational day-to-day things like you described. Bikes make walking easier but all other forms of travel like bus, train or taxi/uber/cars more difficult or impossible.

Dockless and docked bikeshare programs both mitigate this issue, with trade-offs on the inconvenience of finding bikes/parking them.

Re: The Rise of the Electric Scooter

#174

Post by mikestew » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 8:37 PM UTC

pretendscholar wrote: post #99

superturkey650 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever measured how fast you walk? I walk a couple miles every morning at an okay pace with my dog and I still average about 17 minutes a mile.

If I'm walking alone I do about a 10 minute mile but I think I walk fairly fast.

You are either measuring incorrectly, or you are fully aware that the vast majority of the population walk nowhere near that fast, as I'm sure you've noticed as you blow by them.

Re: The Rise of the Electric Scooter

#175

Post by flavor8 » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 8:38 PM UTC

mikestew wrote: post #160

mturmon wrote: post #27

Honest question: How do people lock these things if visiting a shop for a half-hour? (Edited to add: Sorry for confusion! I'm talking about an owned model like the one in OP, the Xiaomi Mi M365 - I looked at some product imagery and it wasn't clear if this was possible.)

Depends on the scooter. On the Xiaomi in question, yes, I've found it to be problematic. The solution is the Masterlock handcuff lock. One end around the tube between deck and bars, the other end around a post. The Boosted Rev I have now has exposed frame rails so you can use your favorite bike lock.

One of these? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SZiI2KhWfU

Re: The Rise of the Electric Scooter

#176

Post by umvi » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 8:39 PM UTC

eldenbishop wrote: post #38

I rode a non-electric kick scooter (Xootr) for three years working in downtown SF. It is by far the best form of transitional transport there is and superior to bikes for 99% of actual real world travel. It was easily 4-5 times faster than walking and more importantly suddenly made the entire city open due to how insanely efficient it was for "glueing" together various forms of public transport. I could hop from tran…

> It was easily 4-5 times faster than walking

I can walk a mile in 20 minutes which is 3 mph. This implies these scooters can maintain 12-15 mph?

Am I just underestimating how fast you can get going on these things? That seems kind of fast unless you are going downhill both ways.

Re: The Rise of the Electric Scooter

#177

Post by ProfessorLayton » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 8:42 PM UTC

lacker wrote: post #49

How steep of a hill can you get up with these things? My street is pretty hilly and I would hate to shell out for a cool device that I have to lug the last two blocks to my house.

Not very TBH, I use one to commute to head to the train station. On the way back I have to climb back up the hill omw home and its maybe ~5% grade, and I have to peddle to keep going uphill.

My scooter is rated at 250w (600w peak, which is on the low side) but is incredibly compact when folded, which is a huge plus. Considering upgrading to a more powerful one, but losing the compactness might not be worth the trade off to me — I can fit this scooter between my legs in a packed uber pool (!)

Re: The Rise of the Electric Scooter

#178

Post by DanBC » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 8:42 PM UTC

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #164

afterburner wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some people say walk, but it's too slow and a 1/2 mile "walk" section on a complicated transport route would be impractical on foot. Wait, are you being serious? That's less than a 10 minute walk, and you probably need the exercise anyways... And SF has fantastic walking weather compared to most of the world.

Right, but that .5mi "10 minute walk" tuns into 20 minutes both ways, adding tons of time (as a % of commute) to the door-to-door travel times.

That's not wasted time though, is it? It's a chance for a bit of exercise, a bit of shopping, to see your local communities.

Re: The Rise of the Electric Scooter

#179

Post by ses1984 » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 8:43 PM UTC

phil248 wrote: post #94

AstralStorm wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And a rental bike does not have this feature?

Sort of, but most bike rental places will charge you a fairly hefty fee (some places I know charge around $200-$300). With the scooters, you just have to find a different scooter and continue about your business.

That's not a problem inherent in the bike or scooter.

Re: The Rise of the Electric Scooter

#180

Post by molodec » Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 8:45 PM UTC

Ok, I understand that there is a lot of benefits to electric scooters. They are fun, convenient, and allow to navigate quickly, and great for the environment, or at least better than cars. Why not driving regular bicycles? Obesity is a growing problem, because people don't exercise enough. Mechanical bicycle is a great low impact activity for modern life. Also, bicycles aren't generally allowed on a sidewalk, but I have seen people ride on them sidewalks. The author of the article, who is by the way the indoor enthusiasts, feels that scooters shouldn't be disallowed on the sidewalks. We need to place for people to walk without worrying about being hit by a scooter. We have roads for motor vehicles and we have side walks for people. Let's keep it this way.